Hawkins
by Clairwaldorf
Summary: Our story is about a town, a small town, and the people who live in this town. The name of this town is Hawkins. The disappearance of Will Byers shakes the town of Hawkins. AU Eventual Mileven and Lumax
1. The Forest's Edge

Hey everyone!

This is my first story on here and thought I'd do a story about on of my favorite shows, Stranger Things.

This story is very much based on the show Riverdale. It won't be exactly the same, but there will be similar story lines.

I like to think of this as the Stranger Things characters in the same world as Riverdale. So these are who each ST character's story line will be based off of.

Lucas- Archie

Eleven/El-Betty

Max-Veronica

Mike-Jughead

Dustin-Kevin

Will-Jason

A lot of the other ST characters will be in this story, but their characters didn't match up with the story lines of the Riverdale character.

The main characters are 16 in this story. Aside from Jonathan, Steve, Barb, and Nancy who are 18. It is also set during modern day.

Please let me know what you think! :)

...

 _Mike's POV_

Our story is about a town, a small town, and the people who live in this town. From a distance, it presents itself like so many small towns, all across the world. Safe, decent, innocent, get closer though and you'll start to see the darkness underneath. The name of this town is Hawkins.

This story begins with the Byers brothers last summer. On the 4th of July, Jonathan and Will Byers went for a bike ride in the woods after dark. The next thing that we know happened, is that a hunter found Jonathan in the woods with Will's bike screaming for his brother.

Hawkins police searched all over the forest for Will Byers, but couldn't find him. Joyce and Jonathon became distraught over the news that the police shared that he was missing and probably dead.

As for the rest of us, we were still talking about Will Byers' disappearance on the last day of summer break when a new girl came into town...

...

16-year old Max Mayfield and her mother Susan climbed out of the taxi as they arrived to their new home in the small town of Hawkins, Indiana. Max looked at the small house and frowned.

Susan noticed the frown and said, "Now be prepared, this house is small compared to what you're used to in Cali, but-

"Quality always," Max replied with a sigh.

Susan smiled and walked toward the house mumbling, "Besides, it's the only piece of property in my name and not your step-dad's..."

They walked into the house and looked around with Susan smiling. "I think this will do. I haven't been back to Hawkins in a long time! How about we order some burgers from Benny's?!"

Max gave her a confused look and asked," Um...what is 'Benny's?'"

...

Eleven, "El" Hopper sat in her room applying minimal makeup to her face while her best friend, Dustin Henderson sat on her bed talking excitedly.

"Are you excited? Nervous?!" Dustin asked.

El turned around smiling, her curly brown hair whipping in the process. "Both! I haven't seen him since school got out."

"Which is why nerves are fine, but we decided, El! It's time! You like him, he likes you-"

"Well then _why_ Dustin, has he never said or done anything?!" El interrupted.

Dustin rolled his eyes as he got up and walked towards her window. "Because... Lucas is great, but like most teenage boys he needs to be told what he wants so that's why you have to tell him!"

El sighed and fixed her hair, "I'm not sure, it depends on-"

"Oh god."

"What?!" El looked up nervously.

"Come here! Change of plans. Lucas got ripped! He's got arms now. I'm telling you, if I was you and into guys...you gotta go for it," Dustin motioned for her to look out the window where they both saw their friend and El's crush, Lucas Sinclair getting changed.

Eleven blushed and went back to fixing her hair before leaving to go to Benny's.

...

Later that night at Benny's, Eleven met up with her long time best friend, and secret crush, Lucas Sinclair for their annual tradition of burgers the night before school started.

"So what was the best part?" Lucas asked El as they ate.

"Of my trip? Getting to stand at the top of the Willis Tower for sure! It's 110 stories high and as you know I have a huge fear of heights...It was just so exhilarating to be able to stand at the top and look over all of Chicago," El smiled happily as she finished.

"Wow. That's awesome, El. I'm glad you were able to have an awesome trip." Lucas smiled at her.

"How was your summer? How was working construction with your dad?"

"It was...boring as hell, but it definitely helped me to get in shape for football this year. I'm determined to get on varsity," Lucas explained while eating his onion rings.

"Well I'm glad you still want to do that!" El said with a bright smile on her face.

"I also started writing songs too in order to pass the time," Lucas confessed with a sheepish smile on his face, "I really love it, El! And I think I'm getting good at it."

"I didn't know you were into music?" El said, her smiling faltering slightly.

"I didn't either until this summer! And the songs made me think about..." he trailed off looking into the distance.

Hope rising in El's chest she whispered, "What Lucas?"

"About how maybe music is what I should be doing with my life now!"

El smiled at him and at his passion he had found. "That's great Lucas! You'll have to show me them sometime."

"Yeah definitely! Maybe later I can show you a few."

Eleven nodded enthusiastically and her smile brightened again, "Great!" She looked down for a second and then blushed a little, "Also, Lucas, I've been thinking a lot about us this past summer and how..."

Lucas listened to the first part of her sentence, but lost focus as soon as the door to the diner opened and a girl walked in.

El's words were drowned out as Lucas watched a girl he'd never seen before walk over to Benny. She was tall with long, wavy red hair. She was wearing shorts and a pretty blue shirt as she carried her skateboard with one arm.

Eleven frowned and suddenly noticed Lucas' attention had been lost. She turned around and saw a girl she didn't recognize walk in.

"I'm here to pick up an order for Mayfield," the mystery girl said to Benny.

Benny looked up and said, "Oh yeah 2 burgers, let me go get those for you."

The girl smiled her thanks and noticed El and Lucas in the booth.

"Hi," she said.

Lucas smiled, "Hey."

The girl took a notice to what Lucas was eating and asked, "How are the onion rings?"

Lucas looked at her, "So good. You gotta try them."

The girl yelled over to Benny, "Can you add some onion rings please?" Then turned back to Lucas and explained, "I just moved here today."

"Where from?"

"California."

Lucas looked surprised, "Oh, wow."

She looked between the 2 of them, "Do you guys to to Hawkins High?"

El finally spoke up at this, "Yeah we do, both of us, together." At the same time Lucas said, "Yeah we do, we're gonna be juniors."

"Me too! But I'm not looking forward to it," she said with a sigh.

"Why not?" Lucas asked.

"With all the drama that's surrounding this small town? I'm from LA, but this place strikes me as an "In Cold Blood" type of place."

This caused both Lucas and the girl to laugh.

"Max Mayfield," the girl said and held out her hand towards Lucas.

He shook it and responded, "Lucas Sinclair." El coughed and he finally looked over and remembered her, "Oh yeah! This is El Hopper."

El smiled at Max nicely.

Max looked at her and said, "Wait a sec...aren't you-?"

"Gonna give you a tour of Hawkins High tomorrow? Yes."

Lucas perked up immediately, "Do you wanna eat with us? We can give you some tips."

Max shook her head, "I can't. My mom's outside, but I'll see you guys tomorrow." She gave one last smile and left.

Lucas' grin stayed on his face as he watched her walk out. He looked back at El, "So um...what were you saying before?"

El smiled sadly and replied, "Oh...nothing, don't worry about it."

...

The next morning El Hopper was getting ready for her school while her mother, Terry was talking to her.

"El, honey, remember this year is super important when applying to colleges. Grades, SAT scores, classes, maintaining a perfect character-"

"I know mom," El sighed.

"I just don't want you to end up like you sister. Kali was such a star before she let her powers take over her life."

"Mom, I'm not Kali okay? I know how to control my powers."

"You missed your curfew last night." Terry said seriously.

"By 5 minutes! I was hanging out with Lucas it wasn't a big deal."

"Honey, you know I love you so much...I just need you to think smart okay?"

El gave her a half-hearted smile.

Terry gave her a small bottle of pills, "I refilled your prescription for you. Don't forget to take these! They'll help with your impulse control over your powers."

She smiled and left her room as El rolled her eyes and shoved the bottle into her backpack before she finished getting ready for her first day.

...

Lucas was at his locker looking over a song he had written a few days before when one of the football players, Troy came up to him.

"Dude. You got jacked, you're so making varsity with these arms. What'd you do? Go to the gym all day, everyday," Troy said.

Lucas laughed, "It's from all that construction I did over the summer."

Troy called over to his other friend, James and the 3 of them walked to class.

Lucas hid his notebook with his songs so Troy and James couldn't see them. He knew if they found them, he wouldn't have the status he has now and he wouldn't make varsity. He thought of how these 2 treated his old friend who was now a loner here at HHS...

After class, El started giving Max the tour of Hawkins High. Max looked around with a little bit of disgust on her face.

"Um...well HHS opened in 1963-"

"And never got remodeled apparently," Max interrupted.

El looked down awkwardly, while Max asked, "So what do you guys do around here for fun?"

Dustin came up behind them and answered, "Arcade, Benny's for burgers, football games on Friday nights, drive in movie theater even if something bad is playing, and other than that? Unless you're me who likes to read comic books and play D&D, let's just say it's a good thing Netflix and Hulu are a thing now."

El smiled at her best friend, "Max Mayfield, Dustin Henderson. Max is new here, and Dustin is-"

"A nerd! Let's be friends." Max replied happy to meet another friendly person.

"So I've heard a lot about your step dad and step brother...is it true?!" Dustin asked eagerly.

Max's smile faltered. "You mean that they're actually devils? Does everyone know about this?"

El and Dustin looked at each other but didn't respond.

Max took that as her answer and groaned as she walked away. El gave Dustin an angry look when she turned.

They caught up to Max further down the hall. When they turned the corner, Max stopped and grabbed El's arm.

"There he is! The hot guy you were with last night!"

El looked down the hall and frowned when she saw Lucas at his locker.

Max looked at El, "Is he your boyfriend?"

Dustin snickered as El answered, "No, we're just friends."

Max smiled, "Then could you drop a few hints about me?"

Dustin quickly answered, "Actually, even though they're not together right now, El and Lucas are definitely going to happen eventually."

Max looked at El, "You should ask him to the back to school dance."

Dustin rolled his eyes, "She _should_ , but she won't and I hear it might get cancelled because of Will Byers."

Max gave a confused look, "Who's Will Byers?"

...

All of HHS gathered into the gym for an assembly to remember Will Byers.

His girlfriend at the time, Jennifer Hayes, dressed in all black, went up to the podium and delivered a speech.

"Thank you all for coming to this assembly. My boyfriend, Will was a wonderful person. He was shy, so you may not have known him very well, but he always loved Hawkins High."

In the audience, Mike Wheeler, sitting by himself, rolled his eyes at Jennifer's words. He knew Will at one point and Will hated HHS.

"Will wouldn't want us to mourn him, so we're not cancelling the back to school dance because I know he would want us to still have it. I still remember when he and I danced at the Snow Ball back in 8th grade." Jennifer's tears fell and she walked away from the podium.

...

At lunch, Max looked around the cafeteria trying to figure out where to sit. She looked around and saw the popular girls and the jocks looking at her, a dark haired guy with a laptop sitting alone in the corner, and finally spotted Lucas, El, and Dustin. They were all gathered around a laptop listening to something when she walked over.

"Hey guys, can I sit?" Max asked with a smile.

El smiled at her and nodded.

"What are you guys listening to?" Max asked curious.

El smiled at Lucas and responded, "One of Lucas' songs!"

Max turned to Lucas, "You wrote that?!"

Lucas smiled sheepishly, "Yeah...I know it's not that good, it's still the first draft."

El touched his arm, "No! It's great Lucas!"

Max looked stunned, "It's incredible if you ask me, the small part I heard! Have you been doing it for a while?"

"No actually, I just started this summer, but I'm really enjoying it so far."

Lucas saw Jennifer Hayes' long blonde hair sauntering over to the table and quickly excused himself to go to football tryouts.

Max looked at him impressed, "Football too? Wow you really do everything don't you?"

El watched as Lucas walked away.

"In case you're wondering, El has not asked Lucas to the back to school dance yet!"

El looked up and blushed, "No! I already told you I'm not asking him." She saw Jennifer walking over and muttered quickly, "Stop talking about Lucas!"

"Maxine Mayfield! I'm Jennifer Hayes. Can I join you guys? El would you move over?" Jennifer asked in her fake sweet voice as she sat down next to El.

"So what is everyone talking about? Lucas finally hitting puberty and turning into that piece of man candy?" Jennifer flipped her long blonde hair as El subtly shook her head to Max.

"Extra curricular activities! I need to join some," Max said with a smile.

Jennifer smiled broadly, "Cheerleading! Oh my gosh you have to. I'm the captain of the cheerleading squad."

"Does cheerleading still exist?" Dustin asked.

Jennifer turned and frowned towards him, "Does being a nerd still exist?"

Dustin gave her a glare before looking towards El who rolled her eyes.

Max spoke up, "I was on the basketball team and the cheerleading squad back in Cali, count me in." She looked over at El who was quiet. "El you're trying out too!"

Jennifer looked at El with a fake smile, "Yes definitely! All are welcome to try out, but I know El has a lot on her plate and cheerleading is a big commitment...but everyone's encouraged!"

Jennifer stood up and gave them a wave before walking away.

Max looked back at Dustin and El, "Go ahead and give cheerleading shit-"

"I'd love to join cheerleading!" El said sadly, "But I tried out the last 2 years and Jennifer always said I was too fat."

"Oh my god no not at all. With your looks and brains, you should be ruling this school not Jennifer. I can teach you how to be a cheerleader, I've been doing it a while."

El smiled and thought about it and finally said, "Screw it, let's do it! Show me what to do!"

...

Thanks for reading!

Please let me know what you think and if you want me to update.

Just an FYI, I know this first chapter El likes Lucas, but just like how Betty initially liked Archie, it'll take time for her to like the right person (aka Mike).

Also I know Mike wasn't really in this chapter, but he'll be in it really soon. Just like Jughead, he'll be narrating a lot of the story and will be an important character.


	2. Two Broken Hearts

**Hey everyone! Here's chapter 2 of Hawkins, a Stranger Things story based on the show Riverdale.**

...

"WE'RE BLUE AND WHITE, WE'RE DYNAMITE! WE'LL TAKE YOU DOWN AND FIGHT THE FIGHT!" El and Max did their cheerleading routine at try-outs the next day after school.

"WOOHOO GO TIGERS!" Max finished waving her pompoms and flashed a smile at Jennifer and the 2 other cheerleaders who were judging.

Jennifer look unimpressed at the routine. "Well let's see how you 2 do with the interview part of the interview." She looked over to El, "El, how's your sister?"

El looked up confused, "Um Kali's doing well, thanks-"

"Max has El told you about her Kali?"

Max turned to Jennifer, "Not yet."

"Go on El, tell Max here about Kali and the work she did with Will before he disappeared."

El looked at the ground, "Kali and Will were both subjects at Hawkins Lab."

"And you're sister had some freaky mental problems right and now lives in a mental institution?" Jennifer challenged. "Tell us El, tell us all how you think Hawkins Lab had something to do with Will's disappearance and Kali's situation right? That Kali is such a perfect little angel who could do no wrong and not at all a psycho."

El looked up at Jennifer with an angry expression. She could feel herself starting to lose control over her powers so she clenched her fists enough where her nails began to draw blood.

"I just-" El began but quieted down.

Jennifer rolled her eyes, "Of course."

"I just wanted to say I'm sorry for what happened to Will, I know you meant a lot to him so this must be so hard on you," El managed to get out quietly.

Jennifer shook her head and rolled her eyes before turning her head towards Max. "Max! Congratulations, you're a cheerleader! El...maybe next year..."

Max looked up at Jennifer confused, "Wait...why? Because you couldn't make El say what you wanted her to?"

"Cheerleaders need to have fire if they're gonna be on my squad."

Max rolled her eyes and started slowly walking towards her, "I know what you need because I used to be just like you in Cali. You walk around the school just waiting to intimidate everyone you so they follow you around and do as you say. You're popular, blonde, rich so you've always been entitled. But that's not how it's gonna be around here anymore, there will eventually be a reckoning...Or...maybe it's now and maybe I'm the reckoning...El and I come as a set, you want 1? You get us both. You said you want fire? Well that's too bad, because I'm all ice. Hi, I'm Mad Max." MAx gave her a mean smile as she stepped right in front of Jennifer.

Jennifer looked at her speechless before nodding her head and agreeing to let El on the squad too.

...

The next day after school El and Max put on their new cheerleading uniforms and get ready for their first practice. They both smiled as they looked at themselves in the locker room mirror.

El looked at Max with a question in her mind. She tapped Max on the shoulder and said, "Hey Max, um why did you do that yesterday? Stand up for me like that? I know I'm not like the people who you hung out with in LA."

They walked towards the football field together as Max answered.

"When I was 13, my mom remarried this guy named Neil. When they first started dating, he was the perfect guy and everything she could've wanted. Once they got married though, he became abusive and was racist and homophobic. He would yell at my mom if she did something he didn't approve of. One time he actually hit her. He has a son too, Billy, who he used to torment. And because of that, Billy became the same way and acted like that towards me. I became so scared that I knew if I treated people horribly like that, I couldn't live with myself. So when my mom divorced him, I decided to become a better person in this new town where no one knew me."

El sighed, "Wow that's really hardcore...When I was born, I was taken away from my mother and placed in Hawkins Lab. I was used as a test subject, my name was Eleven, which is why people call me El now because...well...I have these telekinetic powers. I can move things with my mind, reach people with my mind, hurt people. There was another girl there too, Kali, who also had powers. We both escaped when I was 12 and she was 14. My dad, Chief Hopper found us and took us in and adopted us. We eventually found our mother when I was 13 and she's been around lately too. But ever since Kali was sent away because she took her powers too far, my mom has been putting all this pressure on me to be perfect. So that's why I feel like I've been more anxious about everything lately. Only my parents, Kali, and Lucas know about this so it has to stay a secret."

Max looked at El as she finished her story. She noticed Lucas in his football gear hanging out on the football field. She yelled to him, "Lucas!" She turned to El and whispered, "You're doing this right now! Defeating your demons, Eleven Hopper."

Lucas ran over to them, "Hey guys! Nice new outfits, what's up?"

Max grabbed El's arm excitedly, "El, has an important question to ask you!"

El gave her a panicked look. "Um well I was wondering if you wanted to go to back to school dance with..." she looked at Max, "both of us!"

Both Lucas and Max gave her confused looks, "Huh?"

"Um...yeah well it's Max's first dance! You should have someone go with you even if it's just your new friends."

Max still looked confused but said, "Um sure I'd love to..."

Lucas however said, "Well I'm not really sure I have time to go to the dance."

El's smile fell, but Max spoke up, "No! That's not acceptable. You are going to this dance with us. Take a night off from being the next Troy Bolton and spend a nice evening with 2 brand new cheerleaders."

Lucas smiled but eventually accepted.

...

When El got home from school, she was so ecstatic that she put on the radio and danced around her room in her new cheerleading uniform not caring about the rest of the world.

She eventually stopped when she heard her mother come in and ask what she was wearing.

El smiled hopefully at her mom. "I'm on the cheerleading squad mom!"

Her mother however looked unimpressed. "The same cheerleading squad Kali was on?"

El's smile fell and she knew what was coming.

"The same one Jennifer Hayes is in charge of? No, that's not happening. Take it off and return it tomorrow." Terry started to turn and walk out of the room.

El looked at her mother with a determined look on her face, "No."

Terry turned around and looked at her daughter with a shocked look, "Excuse me?"

"I do everything for everyone else. Everything mom, to be perfect! The perfect daughter to you, friend to Lucas, student to my teachers. Can I please just do ONE thing for myself?!" El started to walk out of her room.

"Wait where do you think you're going?"

"To buy a dress! Because I'm going to the back to school dance this Saturday with Lucas and Max."

Terry looked at her again, "Max Mayfield? The step daughter of Neil Hagrove?!"

"She's a really good friend mom-"

"You really think so? You think Max is going to be your friend now?! Let me tell you something Eleven, girls like Max Mayfield, with her perfect hair and rich family are not going to like girls like-"

"I don't want to hear it mom! I'm going whether you like it or not."

With that El walked out of her room and went out to buy her dress.

...

Saturday night arrived quickly for all of them. El, Max and Lucas arrived to the gym arm in arm as they looked around. Almost everyone from school was there and dancing as the music was playing.

El noticed Lucas' worried look on his face. "Hey, are you okay?"

He looked at her, "Yeah, I'm just worried that I won't be able to do music and football at the same time."

"Guys, can we please not worry about things we shouldn't right now. This is the first school dance. Can't we just be all things at once, like in High School Musical?" Max spoke up.

Lucas laughed, "I'm trying, Max."

"Try harder," she joked. "I'm gonna go grab something to drink." She looked over at El and mouthed, "Go for it!"

El looked down and blushed before they walked towards the dance floor, "Just follow your heart, Lucas. Do what your heart wants."

Lucas smiled, "Thanks, El."

A slow song started playing and El blushed, "Do you wanna dance?"

"Sure," he smiled at her.

They started dancing as El grinned widely. From a distance she could see Max slow dancing with Dustin as they both mouthed, "Do it now!"

El blushed and looked at Lucas, "Um...so I wanted to tell you something, Lucas."

Lucas smiled at her, "Okay, what's on your mind?"

"So...now that I'm a cheerleader and you're on the football team, I've always had this idea of us being a couple."

Lucas looked at her confused and stopped smiling, "El?"

El's smile faltered, "Is it that hard to imagine?"

Lucas didn't answer, but just looked at her with a sad expression as the song ended. El frowned and turned away from him.

Meanwhile, Jennifer Hayes had been watching the encounter with a mean smile. She turned to one of her friends. "Make sure those 2 come to the party I'm hosting after the dance. The new girl too. I think it's time for destruction."

...

At Jennifer's house, El found herself sitting on the couch next to Max not in the mood to be there. She kept glancing over at Lucas, but he wouldn't make eye contact with her.

Jennifer stood up in the middle of everyone. "Alright everyone, it's time to play a game and everyone here must play. We're throwing it back to junior high tonight with a game of 7 minutes in heaven...who wants to go first? Hmmmm...I think Mr. Music or Football, Lucas Sinclair." Jennifer pointed to Lucas who was standing in the corner.

"Uh...no I don't th-"

"YES, Sinclair, let's go!" Troy had spoken up from one of the chairs.

"Alright, let's start the game then," she spun the bottle on the table and everyone watched as it landed right between Max and El.

El felt her heart speed up at the sight. She looked at Jennifer who was smiling wickedly.

"Well...it looks like the new girl gets to go first."

Max looked at Jennifer with defiance, "No. I'm not playing."

Jennifer rolled her eyes. "Well that's your choice, but the rules state that if you don't, the hostess can take your place."

Max rolled her eyes and looked at El with an apologetic look.

...

Lucas followed Max into the closest Jennifer pointed to. After shutting the door, Max rolled her eyes.

"I know her boyfriend is missing, but Jennifer really is a grade A bitch."

Lucas laughed at her comment. "So...do you miss LA?"

Max shrugged her with arms across her chest. "I mean it's only been a week, but yeah I do."

Lucas nodded and looked down at his phone, "6 minutes 35 seconds to go. Go ahead, ask me a question to kill time."

"Well...it looked like you and El were having fun dancing-"

Lucas interrupted her. "Of course, she's always been a great friend. My turn-"

"I didn't get to ask a question. It that all that's between you guys, friendship?"

Lucas rolled his eyes, "We're best friends, not just friends."

This time is was Max's turn to roll her eyes.

Lucas paused before asking her his next question, "Do you have a boyfriend back in California?"

Max looked up at him, "No...my turn again. Do you think it could become more than friendship with El?"

Lucas looked at her amused. "You asking for yourself or Eleven?"

Max smiled, "For El."

"No. I've never felt anything more than friendship with Eleven."

Max moved closer to him. "Have you felt it though? With anyone else?"

Lucas took a step closer too. "Yes, you?"

"Maybe once." Max put a hand on his arm. "You're more dangerous than you come across you know. All boy next doorish."

Lucas laughed and stepped towards her again, "You have no idea, Mad Max."

There was a pause and they both suddenly realized how close they were standing. Lucas started to lean into her.

"We shouldn't do this, Lucas..." Max whispered.

Lucas shook his head, "We definitely shouldn't."

Max gave in and leant in the rest of the way and kissed him as he kissed her back. They both felt something as they kissed and forgot about the rest of the world and the party that was happening right outside the door.

...

After the 7 minutes were up, Max and Lucas emerged from the closet with red cheeks that matched her hair. They looked around at everyone there and noticed El wasn't there anymore.

"Where's El?" Max asked.

Jennifer stood up and walked towards them. "She freaked and bailed. She really does have mental issues like her sister."

Max glared at her. "You're a vindictive little bitch."

Max and Lucas ran out of the house looking for El. Max tried calling her phone, but El didn't answer.

"Maybe we should look for her together?" Lucas suggested.

"No! The last thing El would want is both of us looking for her together. We never should've done that." Max yelled before she ran off.

Lucas looked her with a hurt expression as he went in the opposite direction to find Eleven.

...

 _Mike's POV_

It was after midnight, when my childhood friend, Lucas Sinclair, came to the diner that was open 24 hours. He was looking for the girl next door, but he only found me.

I heard him open the door and walk over to Benny to ask if El was there.

Benny shook his head and answered, "No. Just the night owl." He pointed towards me in my usual booth.

Lucas nodded and slowly started walking towards me. "Hey Mike, can I join?"

I shrugged my shoulders but gestured to the seat across from me.

He noticed my laptop and pointed towards it. "What are you working on?"

"My novel. It's about the summer and Will."

"16 years old. I can't believe that happened to him. I still remember junior high when you, me, Will, and Dustin played Dungeon and Dragons in your basement after school everyday...and now he's gone."

I just blinked at him. I remembered too, but after losing touch with all of them I assumed they forgot.

"Coach came in earlier talking to Benny. You're on varsity? So now you're the popular football guy now?" I chose to say instead.

Lucas looked down. "No...Honestly, I'm afraid I lost one of my best friends tonight."

I instantly knew who he was talking about. "Eleven? Well whatever went down between you guys you should just talk to her. I'm sure it'll go a long way with her." I paused wondering if I should say the next part before deciding to. "It would've gone a long way with me, Lucas."

I looked at him as he looked up at me guiltily. He nodded and stood up to leave to find the girl next door.

...

Lucas arrived to El's house after leaving the diner thinking about what Mike said. He knocked on her door and she stepped out, still wearing her dress from the dance with tears in her eyes.

She slowly closed the door and crossed her arms in front of him. "I won't ask what happened in the closet with Max...but I need you to answer one thing for me, Lucas. Do you love me?" She choked on her words. "Or even like me?"

"You know I love you El! But not in the way you want me to."

El looked at him with a hurt expression. "Why not?"

"You're so perfect, El. You're my best friend, but I can't be anything else for you. I can't give you the answer you want and I'm sorry for that. This isn't about you, okay?"

El nodded slowly not knowing how to respond. She walked back into her house and closed her door before running upstairs to her room and crying over her best friend as her heart broke in two.

...

 **Thanks for reading!**

 **I know this chapter was sad and I know we've all been in El's shoes before so we can empathize, but it had to happen.**

 **You finally got to meet Mike in this chapter! He'll be in it way more coming up I promise. What happened between him and Lucas that caused all the tension?**

 **Please don't be mad at Lucas or Max! They can't help their feelings, but their actions definitely will have consequences in the future...**

 **Please review if you have a chance and let me know what you think!**

 **Have a happy New Year everyone!**

 **-C**


	3. Secrets and Lies

**Hi everybody! Thanks for favoriting, following, and reviewing. I'm glad you like this story so I will definitely keep updating.**

 **IAmCC: Thanks so much for your kind words! This story is set in present day. :)**

 **Enjoy!**

...

 _Mike's POV_

I think many of us, myself included, were hoping that Will actually wasn't missing. That he would just show up to school the next day like always smiling at everyone even if he didn't know them, because that's the kind of person he was. Or we'd see him and Jennifer hanging out at Benny's after school.

Because after the dance Saturday night, the state police found a bike out by the lake. Police had confirmed that it was Will's, but no one knew what happened to him.

Jonathan had told the police that he saw something in the woods, almost alien-like, and thought he heard a scream that sounded like Will's...but no one believed him.

...

The night after the dance Lucas tossed and turned in his bed as he thought about everything that happened that day. He sat up and looked out his window and saw El's light was still on. He grabbed his phone and texted her.

Hey are you still up? Can we talk please?

Eleven, who was writing in her journal, grabbed her phone and frowned as she saw the message. She typed back.

No...to both.

Lucas ran his hand through his hair and replied.

PLEASE EL!

He looked out his window and saw El at the window as she turned her light off. He couldn't sleep and grabbed his phone before he ran out of his house down the street. He kept running until he arrived at the house he knew all too well from this summer.

Lucas knocked on the door before he saw their head peak out of the door.

"Lucas? What are you doing here?" Jennifer Hayes whispered as she stepped onto her porch.

"Jennifer, we need to tell someone what we saw the night Will went missing," Lucas said in a panicked voice.

"Lucas, we didn't see anything! It was just a bear or a coyote or something."

"You know that's not true. We know something that could help find out what happened to Will."

"We can't tell them Lucas, if we do, they'll wonder what I was doing in the woods with you. They'll know I was cheating on Will! You were his friend Lucas, imagine how you'll look to everyone else if they find out, we'll lose our statuses, we won't be able to be together..." Jennifer whisper yelled as she looked at him with panicked eyes.

Lucas didn't respond but ran off her porch and back down the street again.

...

Monday morning came around faster than they would have liked. At the Hopper house, Jim knocked on El's door.

She looked up and smiled when she saw it was her dad. "Hey dad."

"Hey kid, I just wanted to let you know that it's probably going to be a late night tonight. After we found the bike on Saturday, Joyce is going to want me with her to look for Will."

El nodded at him and smiled knowing that her dad really liked Joyce and wouldn't mind spending the day with her. "Well, I hope you find him. Will's a great friend."

The door knocked again and this time it was Terry. Both El and Jim frowned at the sight.

"Jim? Can you make me a cup of coffee? I'm running late."

Jim rolled his eyes but got up and left. El felt bad. Ever since Terry started coming around, she's been bossing him around and ruining the little family vibe they had formed.

"I'm sure you understood what I meant the other day after everything happened at the dance and at the Hayes' house? Now you see who Max Mayfield and Lucas really are."

El forced a smile and nodded, "Yes mom, I did. I won't see them anymore, I promise."

10 minutes later however, El left her house and walked over to Lucas' and knocked on his door.

He opened the door, surprised to see El there.

She smiled at him and asked, "Wanna walk to school together?"

Lucas nodded his head, grabbed his backpack and followed her outside.

There was a few minutes of awkward silence before El spoke up, "I know the other night was weird, but I think I needed that time to figure out it is exactly what I want and what my mom wants. She thinks I should never talk to you again, but even though you don't, you know, like me in that way, I still want us to be best friends, like we've been since we were 12."

Lucas smiled, "Oh great! That's exactly what I want too, El."

"Honestly, it did hurt a little bit-"

"I know and I'm sorry about that. I didn't do it to hurt you. I just thought it would be better that way."

"It will be I promise. Oh! Just don't tell my mom that we're friends again."

They both laughed and continued walking to school.

...

At school, Lucas stood by Will's locker watching people putting flowers and cards next to it. He still couldn't decide if he should tell the police what he saw.

"Hey," he heard a voice say.

He turned around to see Mike behind him wearing his usual khaki pants and collared shirt and sweater.

"Do you think they'd be mad if I told them I couldn't do gym because I was so upset?" Mike asked him.

Lucas gave him a confused look.

Mike shrugged, "'Sorry teach, I'm just too broken up about everything going on with Will that I can't run the mile today."

Lucas rolled his eyes, "Don't joke about Will's disappearance like that."

"What? You know sarcasm is my way of dealing with the world." Mike frowned.

From a distance they could see Troy and his minions walking down the hall. Mike rolled his eyes.

"Oh great, here come the frat boys...Alright, I gotta go." Mike walked down the hall trying to avoid Troy.

As he walked past them, Troy bumped against Mike causing him to stumble. Troy laughed, "Watch yourself, Frogface."

Lucas turned away, sighed, and closed his locker.

...

"So he actually used the line, 'it's not you, it's me?' Wow, I mean I knew Lucas was kinda cliche, but now I really know he is," Dustin said as he and El walked down the hall.

El shrugged, "It's fine, I'm over it, I swear." She gave him a half-hearted smile.

They walked into the main office and saw a pink skateboard sitting on a table with a card next to it.

"Holy shit!" Dustin said as the secretary gave him a look.

"It's for El. Someone sent it," the secretary said.

Dustin grabbed the card and read it aloud, "'Dear El, I'm so sorry for the other night. I hope we can move past it and still be friends. Love Mad Max' Who's Mad Max?"

El's smile fell as she realized who it was as she saw her come in.

Max came in with a guilty smile answering Dustin's question, "Max!"

She walked over slowly with a small box in her hands, "It's pink, your favorite color! I thought I'd teach you how to ride it so we could skateboard together! Also I bought these cookies from the bakery down the street for lunch and since I know you love girly things I got us a gift certificate for mani-pedis! Look El, I'm so sorry about what happened on Saturday. I don't know what came over me, it's like the old Mad Max got control, but I swear I'll never do anything like that to you ever again."

El gave her a small smile, "I forgive you."

Both Dustin and Max gave her a surprised look, "What?!"

El just nodded and didn't say anything.

"That's great! You won't regret it, El Hopper! And I'll bring the cookies to lunch for us." Max was beaming as she waved at them and left.

Dustin was still giving El an incredulous look after Max left.

"It's the easy way out, Dustin. Last week, Max and I weren't even friends. Next week, we'll just say hi to each other if we see each other and that's it. In 2 weeks, she'll have forgotten my name and in 3, she'll have a new friend to destroy."

Dustin rolled his eyes as they walked to class.

...

During 1st period, Principal Clarke made an announcement over the loud speaker to the school announcing that Will's bike had been found over the weekend.

Chief Hopper arrived to the school and spoke after, "This is Chief Jim Hopper of Hawkins Police. If anyone here has any information regarding anything in this case I strongly suggest you come forward. We are still looking for Will and won't give up until he's found."

In his class, Lucas looked down at his hands worried. He wanted to come forward about what he saw, but he didn't want to drag Jennifer into it if she wasn't ready.

He looked up and saw that Mike had noticed his expression and was looking at him trying to figure out what he was thinking.

Once the bell rang at the end of class, Lucas rushed out of class trying to avoid Mike, but once he got to his locker he noticed he had caught up.

"Lucas!" Mike called.

Lucas looked over and tried to mask his expression.

Mike walked towards the locker. "Wanna hear something weird? This summer you and I were supposed to go on a camping trip on July 4th. But then you bailed on me at the last possible second...Is there something you should tell me?"

Lucas didn't respond, but closed his locker and ran to his class.

...

As Lucas reached his 3rd period biology class, he noticed Mike already sitting in his seat, so he walked by without making eye contact.

The teacher came in and announced that everyone needed to find a partner to do the lab activity. Lucas saw Jonathan Byers sitting alone and decided to join him.

Max saw this as the perfect opportunity and announced, "I'm with El!"

El, who had already found a table with Dustin, looked over confused, "Oh, um, I'm working with Dustin."

However, Stacey walked over and pulled Dustin towards her table. "Actually, Dustin's my partner today."

Dustin gave El a smile as he got whisked away.

Max happily sat down in Dustin's seat. "Look at that! Fate really is throwing us together, isn't it?"

El didn't respond, but gave her a small smile.

Lucas sat down next to Jonathan Byers who he had not spoken to since he stopped hanging out with Will.

"Hey Jonathan, I know I haven't been around much, but I wanted to say that I'm sorry about everything that's going on," Lucas said.

Jonathan, who had been looking at his notebook until now, looked up. "Thanks, Lucas. You were always a good friend to him."

"If there's anything I can do for you-"

"That's nice of you Lucas, but unless you know anything about what happened..." Jonathan trailed off.

Lucas paused. "Does Hopper have any leads?"

Jonathan shook his head. "No, I told them I saw something...well I'm not really sure what it was...but they didn't believe me."

Lucas just looked at him before starting the lab.

...

After class, Dustin, Max, and El made their way down to the cafeteria for lunch.

"So...what did Stacey want?" Max asked Lucas with a smile.

Dustin blushed. "Oh my god, nothing. She's one of the most popular girls in school I have no idea why she'd be talking to me of all people."

Max rolled her eyes. "Please you are a such a catch, Henderson! I ship it."

"That's because you're a California girl with loose morals."

Both El and Max gave him a look.

"What I mean by that is Stacey is way out of my league."

They eventually found the table where Lucas was sitting at alone working on a song. There was an awkward silence as none of the 4 knew what to say.

It was Max who finally broke the silence. "Lucas! Are you working on a song? Wanna play it for a very forgiving audience today?"

"Uh...no it's not-" he started.

"Please?!" Max interrupted while gesturing her head towards El who hadn't said a word at all yet.

She finally spoke up. "Can you? I really want to hear it," El said with a smile.

Lucas nodded and strummed his guitar while he started singing.

"Come on turn the radio on

And honey let's dance, dance, dance

For the rest of the night

It's better left unsaid..."

As he continued singing, El began to feel tears as she thought back to the 2 of them dancing at the dance and then his face when he told her he didn't like her back. She looked down as he finished his song.

Dustin and Max clapped, but Lucas noticed that El hadn't and was looking down.

"El? Are you alright?"

El let out a laugh at the question as she looked up. "I'm supposed to say yes, right? Because that's what the nice girl would say, but I'm not. I wanted to be and I thought I was, but it's too much too soon." She started to cry and stood up from the tabling attempting to run out of the cafeteria.

Lucas stood up and caught her arm before she could leave. "Eleven, please wait and listen to me-"

El turned around and cut him off, "No, Lucas, no. When I think of when I feel happiest and most relaxed I think of us when we're at Benny's eating burgers, but that's not true anymore."

Lucas looked at her trying to figure out what to say.

El looked up at him. "I thought I could forget this weekend ever happened but...'I can't give you the answer you want,' that's what you said and that's what I'm saying to you now." She turned around and ran out of the cafeteria before he could respond.

...

As Lucas started walking to his next class after lunch, Principal Clarke stopped him.

"Lucas, can we talk for a second?"

Lucas looked startled but nodded.

"I know you were close to Will for a while so I wanted to see how you were handling everything," Clarke said.

Lucas shrugged, "It's been tough. Will was a great friend and I don't understand what could've happened...I mean it's all just so strange."

The principal looked at him. "What do you mean, Lucas?"

"N-nothing."

"Do you know something?"

"What? No of course not, Mr. Clarke," Lucas was starting to panic.

Thankfully the bell rang and he was forced to head to his class.

But he didn't go to his class, he saw Jennifer heading to class and pulled her into a nearby empty classroom.

"Jennifer, we have to say something. Mr. Clarke just asked me if I know anything about it!"

Jennifer looked scared and conflicted. "We can't Lucas, you know that! I was Will's girlfriend. If you tell them, I could lose everything."

Lucas looked her in the eye. "I need you to tell me, Jen. Is this thing between us real? Do you have real feelings for me? Because if not, I have nothing to protect."

Jennifer looked at him, "Of course it is, Lucas. You know it is. It's not right, but it's real. So that's why you can't tell anyone, otherwise we can't be together," She took his hands and leaned in to kiss him.

However, unbeknownst to them, someone happened to be walking by that classroom at that exact moment and saw them kiss.

...

The cheerleaders, after practicing for almost 2 hours straight already, started feeling themselves lose focus. El, who wasn't used to these kinds of practices, felt tired and saw herself lagging behind the others. Max, however, after skateboarding everywhere and doing both cheerleading and basketball back in California hadn't even broken a sweat.

"STOP!" Jennifer yelled at the others. "I've heard there might be rain at the pep rally next week, so we need to be extra prepared. Since it's going to be in Will's honor, everyone will be watching me so I don't want you guys messing it up for me. Take 5 bitches."

El walked over to the side and sat down on the bench while she checked her phone. Max followed her unsure of what to say and sat down on the ground beside her.

"After this practice, a pedicure doesn't sound so bad to me, even though I've never wanted one before. You feel the same?" Max tried.

El gave her a side glance. "I have homework to do," she replied shortly.

Max decided to try again. "I know people go through grief differently, but Jennifer's throwing a pep rally for her missing boyfriend. She's definitely insane."

"Well at least Jennifer isn't putting on an act to try and be this fake, nice person. At least she knows she's a bitch."

Max gave El a glare. "Just so you know, I only went into the closet with Lucas to make sure Jennifer didn't."

"Oh so you did it for me?" El stood up.

Max stood too. "Exactly."

"So nothing happened between you and Lucas in the closet?" El challenged.

Max didn't answer.

"Yeah that's what I thought. You know, Lucas and I were doing fine before you intervened!"

Max scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Yeah if you define 'fine' as you being in unrequited love with him while he was oblivious."

"We were friends!"

"You were walking on egg shells around him too scared to tell him anything."

"You don't know anything about it-"

Max had enough, "You can't blame me for him not liking you!"

There was a pause and El just looked at her with an unreadable expression.

"If that's what you were thinking," Max finished. "It's not your fault, its not my fault, its not even Lucas' fault, it's just the facts. It sucks and we've all been there. Most of the time we're victims of unrequited love. Romeo and Juliet aren't real people. If you're really that pissed at me, never talk to me again, but what did Lucas do that was so bad?"

El gave her a glare. "Oh, so you're taking his side now? And this is your way of apologizing to me?"

Max groaned, "I'm not defending-"

Jennifer came over at that moment. "Excuse me ladies, am I interrupting something here?"

Max opened her mouth to say yes, but El beat her to it, "No, you're fine, Jen. Actually, I was going to find you in a second. I have a gift card to get mani-pedis after school, wanna come with?"

Max turned to El, "El, don't do this-"

Jennifer interrupted her, "Shut up, Ice Princess. She was talking to me, not you." She turned to El with a smile on her face. "I'm so glad you asked me El, of course I'll go with you. You know how much I love mani-pedis!" She grabbed El's arm and dragged her to the locker room chatting excitedly.

Max stomped her foot and groaned.

...

 **Thanks for reading everybody!**

 **I'm glad people are liking this story. Stranger Things and Riverdale are 2 of my favorite shows and I wanted to see how they would work together.**

 **Also who do you think so Lucas and Jennifer? (If you've seen Riverdale you can probably figure out who it'll be lol)**

 **Please review if you have a chance! :)**

 **-CW**


	4. Crazy, crazy, crazy

**Hi everyone, me again!**

 **Here's chapter 4 :) I'm really enjoying writing this story and I appreciate all the support.**

 **Enjoy!**

...

After school, Max went over to Benny's Burgers to see how her mom's first day was doing. Since they just moved, Susan needed to find a job fast and saw that Benny's was hiring.

Max sat at the counter and watched her mom bring food to a table.

"You're going good mom, better than me today at least."

"We're getting by because of our wits. That's how we always do. Imagine what your father say if he saw us now..." she trailed off as she started setting up places at the counter.

"He'd say you look great in that uniform. Very retro."

"I'm going for that 1950's waitress look. Is it working?" Susan smiled at her daughter.

Max laughed as the bell to the diner rang. She turned around and saw Lucas come in and her smile fell.

He quickly noticed her. "Hi."

She gave him a half-hearted smile. "Hey."

Susan turned ant noticed Lucas come in and whispered to her daughter, "And who's this All-American boy?"

Max looked at her and shook her head slightly.

Lucas spoke up, "Um...I'm picking up an order for Sinclair."

Susan looked up at him. "You're Lucas Sinclair? You're as handsome as your father was in high school."

Lucas smiled as Max got up from her chair. "I'm gonna head home, mom."

Susan handed Lucas his bag of food, "I'm sure Lucas will escort you, won't you?"

Lucas gave her a smile and nodded as Max gave her a glare.

There was a bit of awkward silence as the two started walking towards Max's house.

It was Max who spoke up first, "So...is El mad at you too?"

"Well she's not responding to my texts so I'm taking that as a yes. What about you?"

Max sighed. "I'm back to being the cold-hearted bitch who destroys everyone. It sucks because I really felt like El and I were going to be best friends! But now it's like I missed that opportunity because my old self came out."

Lucas paused before he responded. "El and I met when we were 12. She had just escaped from Hawkins Lab, you know she was a test subject there. It was a rainy night, and Me, Dustin, Will, and our old friend Mike found her in the woods. Mike took her in because his parents weren't around so she could hide out. Initially I didn't really like her, but then I realized she was just a kid. The 5 of us used to hang out all the time. And then she and I became super close especially when she moved in with Chief Hopper next door. After a while it became just me, Will, El and Dustin who would hang out..."

Max smiled. "Wow."

"I hate that I had to hurt her, it was the last thing I wanted to do, Max."

"Give her some time, Lucas. She'll come around. Don't worry I'm sure you and El will become best friends again."

Lucas smiled at her as they reached her house.

...

After the nail appointment, El had such a great time with Jennifer that she invited her over to her house to do make-up and hair for a while.

Jennifer had just finished her make up and looked in the mirror.

"Your room is so cute!" She commented as she looked around.

El shrugged. "It's too girly."

"I like it, mine is too, you should come over tomorrow and see it! Just you though, not the new girl. Wow, she really must be a bitch if even you won't be friends with her."

El didn't respond as Jennifer started doing her make-up.

"El, I'm so sorry I've been such a bitch to you. After Will disappeared, I became angry at everyone, but I kept taking it out on you which wasn't nice. Especially since we both lost someone we were close with."

El nodded, "It's okay, I understand. I know it's been hard on you."

"So...how's Kali doing?"

El looked up slightly taken aback. "I'm not sure, I haven't seen her since she left."

"Does she know Will's missing?"

"I don't know, my mom won't let me see her."

"What does your mom think?"

"About Kali? Not much. She doesn't even mention her name."

"Does she visit-"

El interrupted her. "Why are you asking me all these questions about Kali?"

Jennifer glared at her. "Because you stupid bitch, something happened to my boyfriend and I think your psychotic, telekinetic sister killed him."

El sat on her bed unable to respond and just stared at Jennifer as she turned back to look in the mirror. She felt herself begin to lose control of her powers again and dug her nails into her palms to stop herself.

El slowly stood up and glared at Jennifer. "Get out of my house, Jennifer."

Jennifer turned around to look at El. "Not until-"

"Jennifer, get the hell out of my house before I kill you."

Jennifer just stared at El, who had a look that could actually kill, before she ran out of the room scared.

...

Lucas arrived to his house after leaving Max at her house and saw Mike sitting on his

front steps waiting for him.

"Mike? What are you doing here?" Lucas asked confused.

Mike stood up and walked towards him. "I saw you today, Lucas. In that classroom making out with Jennifer."

Lucas walked over to him panicked. "Shut up dude, my parents are inside and they can't find out!"

"I'm trying to offer you some help and be a friend, even though we haven't been for a long time...How long has that been going on?"

Lucas looked down. "Since the summer...I like her a lot."

Mike scoffed and rolled his eyes. "I'm guessing that's why you've been acting strange since summer."

"One of the reasons..." Lucas mumbled.

"One of? There's more?"

"Jennifer and I saw something the night Will went missing. We were in the woods. I think it got him, Mike!"

Mike stared at him stunned. "Lucas, you have to tell Hopper."

"I can't and neither can you because if anybody finds out we were together-"

"Will is missing, Lucas! Our old friend. And you're worrying about some slut?" Mike yelled.

"Don't call her that! She cares about me," Lucas interrupted.

"I'm gonna take a guess here and say that she only cares about herself. She doesn't want anyone to find out and ruin her perfect image. She doesn't care about you or Will, she only cares about herself. She's the one who said not to tell anyone, right? She's just messing with your head-"

"And what the hell do you know about it, Mike?! Or about me?!"

Mike shook his head. "You know what? Nothing anymore. But I used to be friends with this guy a long time ago, Lucas Sinclair. He wasn't always perfect, but he always tried to do the right thing."

Mike turned to walk away, but Lucas grabbed his arm. "You can't tell anyone, Mike."

"Or what, Lucas? What will you do?"

There was a pause as Mr. Sinclair opened the door and saw the two on the porch, one of them he hadn't seen in a while.

"Hey, Mike! You staying for dinner? We're ordering Benny's-"

"No, dad. He's leaving," Lucas snapped.

Mike rolled his eyes, but walked away.

...

El walked down to her kitchen the next morning and saw her mom making coffee.

"Mom?"

Terry turned around and smiled at her. "Oh! There you are, honey. I made you some

eggos. Jim says those are your favorite."

El smiled and sat down to eat. "Mom? Does Kali know that Will's missing?"

Terry turned back around and focused on her coffee. "I told her, but she barely knows what her own name is half the time."

"I think I want to go visit her, mom."

Terry froze. "I'm so proud of everything you're doing, sweetie. I just don't want you seeing her to mess up everything you have going on right now."

El rolled her eyes, but didn't respond as she ate her waffles.

...

When El got to her locker, she saw that Max was already at hers searching for books.

"You were right."

Max turned and looked at El. "What?"

"Everything you said about Lucas yesterday. I guess it's hard for me to admit these kinds of things. My mom's crazy, my sister is locked up, the boy I like doesn't like me back-"

"He may not have a crush on you, but he's still your best friend. And he's miserable without you. Sometimes, a friend is better to have than a boyfriend. I feel like this is one of those times."

El smiled at her as they walked to their first class. The teacher hadn't arrived yet and everyone was sitting around listening to Troy talk.

"Hopper thinks I had something to do with it. That because I 'bullied' him in middle school, I would want him dead or something. It's all bull. I told him it wasn't me. Because let's be real right now, if someone Hawkins High actually killed Will, it wouldn't be a jock who barely knows him right? No, of course not, isn't it always some creepy, scrawny, pathetic internet troll too busy writing kinky Star Wars fanfiction to get laid? Some smug, moody, serial killer fan boy freak...like Wheeler!"

Everyone turned to look at Mike who was sitting in the back corner rolling his eyes.

Troy laughed, "What was it like, Frogface? When you killed Will? You didn't do like kinky stuff to him after he died, right?"

"I think the term you're looking for is 'necrophilia.' Know how to spell it, Troy?" Mike replied in a monotone.

Troy got up from his seat and started walking towards him. "You little shit-"

Lucas stood up and pushed him out of the way. "Just shut up, Troy."

"...Guys?" Max asked cautiously.

"What's your problem, Sinclair?"

"Nothing, just leave him alone, alright?" Lucas replied quickly.

"Holy shit! You and Donnie Darko killed him together, didn't you? Was it some creepy like blood-brother thing?"

Lucas had enough and tackled Troy to the ground. They fought until the teacher showed up and broke them up.

...

Friday night came around fast as the entire school gathered on the football field for the pep rally. Max, El, and the rest of the cheerleaders ran out onto the field trying to get everybody hyped up for the night.

Lucas ran over to Jennifer who was grabbing water.

"Hey, I'm gonna talk to Hopper tomorrow," he said.

Jennifer nodded. "I know. You're a good guy, I figured you would."

"I'll leave you out of it, but I can't keep hiding this. I was there, I saw it. I'm sorry, but I

have to."

She shrugged, but nodded again.

From the side of the bleachers alone, Mike watched and heard the exchange and smiled, proud of his former friend for doing the right thing.

Lucas noticed Mike and ran over to him.

"You having girl trouble?" Mike asked in his usual sarcastic way.

"I'm gonna tell Hopper tomorrow about what I saw. Will was my friend. I gotta help to find him."

Mike nodded, but didn't say anything.

Lucas continued, "Also, I didn't mean all that shit I said the other day. So, I'm sorry."

Mike nodded again. "It's alright. I get it."

There was an awkward pause where neither knew what to say next.

Mike spoke up. "We're not gonna hug, man! Let's just do that really douchey thing of nodding and suppressing our emotions."

Lucas laughed. "As friends?"

Mike smiled. "To be discussed further, over burgers after this pep rally."

Lucas nodded before running back to the field to get ready. On his way over, he accidentally bumped into El. She turned around and noticed that he had a black eye from his fight with Troy.

"Oh my god, Lucas! Your eye, are you okay?"

Before he could respond, some of the players grabbed him and dragged him towards the field.

The mayor and Principal Clarke spoke at the podium to announce the start of the pep rally, which they said was in honor of Will Byers. The cheerleaders started their routine with the marching band playing the music. El smiled throughout all of it, reveling in the moment of being an actual cheerleader. She saw Max enjoying herself too and smiled wider.

The coach announced the football players who ran out onto the field, Lucas in front. Jennifer looked off into the distance, where the woods was and felt herself having a flashback and starting experiencing a panic attack. She quickly ran from the field to the locker rooms. Max saw her running and followed her, with El not too far behind.

Max got their first and sat down next to Jennifer, who was crying.

"Jennifer? What happened?"

"I saw him. I thought I saw him. Will. He's gone!" She sobbed into her hands.

"I know, I'm sorry Jennifer."

"It never should've happened. He was such a great person, way better than me."

El got to the locker room and stood at the door as she watched Max console Jennifer. Jennifer eventually turned, hugged, and cried into Max's shoulder. El smiled as she saw the good person in Max shine through.

When the pep rally was over, El walked over to Max who was getting her stuff out of her gym locker.

"Hey, Max," El said nervously.

Max turned, "Oh, hey."

"I saw you earlier with Jennifer. Not a lot of people would've done that, you know."

"To be honest, I've had my fair share of mental breakdowns. All you need is someone to listen," Max said.

"If you're not busy right now, do you wanna grab a milkshake and burger at Benny's with me?" El asked with a hopeful smile.

Max looked at her and smiled too. "Absolutely."

...

"Here you are girls, one chocolate malt and one traditional vanilla!" Benny set the milkshakes on the table in front of the 2 girls who both said their thanks.

As they started drinking, Max thought of an idea. "Hey, El? Can we make a vow?"

El looked up. "Sure."

"That no matter what, no other boy will come between us ever again."

El smiled and lifted her milkshake. "Deal."

They toasted their milkshakes as the door opened again and Lucas and Mike walked in together. Max noticed them before El did.

When El turned around, she made eye contact with Lucas before asking, "Do you two want to join us?"

Lucas didn't respond, so Mike spoke up instead, "Yes, but only if you're paying."

Both Max and El laughed at his comment. Lucas slid into the booth next to Max and

Mike sat next to El.

Max stuck her hand out towards Mike. "Max Mayfield."

Mike took it and responded, "Mike 'Frogface' Wheeler."

Max looked at him confused. "Frogface?"

The 4 of that laughed throughout the whole night telling stories.

 _Mike's POV_

From an outsider looking in, it would've looked like 4 people sitting in that booth. But as someone who was there, I can tell you, there were really only 3; a red haired girl, a brunette girl, and the luckiest African American boy in the world.

For one night, we were just kids. The neon lights of Benny's diner keeping the darkness at bay.

...

 **Thanks for reading! I'll try and update as often as I can. I'm on winter break so it's easy for me to update as of late.**

 **Things are going to start to pick up from here. The core four has finally formed and I'm excited for the rest of the story to play out...:)**

 **Please review if you can!**

 **Xoxo CW**


	5. Pretty Please With a Cherry on Top?

**Hey everyone!**

 **I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to update yesterday. Here's a chapter to make up for it though!**

 **ENJOY! :)**

...

 _Mike's POV_

 _Guilt. Innocence. Good. Evil. Life. Death._

 _As the shadows around Hawkins grew darker, the lines that separated the polar opposites began to blend together and become blurry._

 _Who was guilty of Will's disappearance? The question remained unknown as everyone began to grow more desperate for answers._

...

Before first period on Monday, Lucas made his way to Principal Clarke's office to admit what he saw the day Will went missing.

"I think I have some information that can help with Will's case," Lucas said to Chief Hopper and Principal Clarke. "Jonathan says he saw something weird that night, right?"

"That's what he said," Hopper replied.

"I saw it too. I was there that night. I didn't want to tell anyone because I didn't know what it was and I was afraid."

"What were you doing in the forest that late?" Hopper questioned him.

"I was writing some songs. I needed a quiet place to do it and I figured no one would be there."

"Did you see what it was?"

"It was almost...not human. It was big whatever it was. It moved really fast so I didn't get a good glimpse at it, but I didn't really see it having a face."

Hopper raised his eyebrow. "It didn't have a face?"

"No, sir."

"Were you alone?"

Lucas paused before answering. "Yes."

...

During free period, Lucas, Max, Dustin, and El met in the student lounge to hang out.

"So are you technically a suspect now?" Max asked Lucas.

"My dad's saying everyone is," El responded.

"Not me! I was in California and I don't know any of these people," Max said with a smile.

Dustin laughed. "Do we all want to hit up the arcade tonight? I got paid last night and I'm dying to beat Lucas' high score."

Max blushed before speaking up. "I can't actually...I have a date tonight!"

Dustin, El, and Lucas all looked at her. Lucas frowned, while Dustin and El smiled.

"Well, well, well, which Hawkins boy made the cut?"

Max smiled shyly and blushed a deeper red. "Troy."

El and Dustin's jaws dropped. "TROY!?" They yelled at the same time.

El looked at her cautiously. "You know he's a little bit of a player, right?"

Dustin still looked shocked. "He's the most popular guy in school! And he's on varsity football, his dad's the coach."

Max smiled and looked down still blushing.

...

Mike walked towards the school newspaper room. He got a text from his old friend, Eleven, earlier asking him to meet her there. He didn't really know what to expect, they hadn't talked in a long time ever since he and Lucas stopped hanging out. She ended up staying friends with Lucas and they lost touch. Truth be told, he always had a soft spot for El ever since she stayed at his house after escaping the lab. He looked in and saw her typing on her laptop.

He leaned against the doorframe. "If newspapers are dying, what am I doing here?"

El looked up and smiled at him. "The _Blue & White _isn't dead, Mike. It's just, sleeping, but I'm waking it up." She stood up as he slowly walked in looking around. "You're writing a book, right? About Will's disappearance?"

Mike looked at her. "I am." He picked up a magnifying glass sitting on a desk and looked through it. "Hawkins' very own, _In Cold Blood."_

"Which started out as just articles!" She paused and looked at him hopefully. "I'm hoping you'll come write for the _Blue & White_."

"I don't really think the school newspaper is the right place for my tone of voice."

El shook her head. "Mike, Will's disappearance changed Hawkins, right? People aren't admitting it, but we all know it's true. I wanna figure out why and I need your help with it."

He eyed her. "Will I have complete freedom to write what I want?"

"I mean I can help and edit and suggest, but it's your story."

Mike gave her a small smile. "I wouldn't call that complete freedom, but...sure, why not?"

El's face broke out into a huge grin. "Awesome! Then I have your first assignment for you. There's one person who was at the woods that night that people aren't talking to."

He nodded knowing who she was referring to. "The Hawkins Police who looked for him."

"Exactly."

Mike gave El one last smile before leaving.

...

Outside of Benny's that night, Max sat with Troy in his car as they took a selfie together.

"Let me see it!" She laughed.

"No, don't worry, you look great," Troy responded.

"I have to see it first before you post it."

He handed her the phone so she could look at it.

Max looked at him and smiled. "Fine."

"You're different than I expected. The former it girl from LA. I thought you'd be a little high maintenance to be honest. What do you miss about California? " Troy asked her.

She gave him a small smile. "Pretty much everything. It's pretty overwhelming to be the new girl."

Troy nodded in response. "Yeah, imagine being the new kid whose father is also the new football coach."

"From an unbiased source, you've really proven yourself and set the bar high for other people at Hawkins. I mean varsity football, honors student, Harvard bound..." He gave her a surprised look. "Oh yes, Mad Max always does her research before agreeing to go on a date with someone."

There was a pause as he looked at her. "I'm gonna have my hands full with you, aren't I?"

Max smiled. "I think you can handle it."

They looked at each other for a minute before Troy leaned in and kissed her.

...

"Why did you tell them what you saw?" Jennifer panicked.

"They wouldn't believe Jonathan, I had to do it. It's the truth," he responded.

"You put us in jeopardy. They could find out about us."

Lucas shook his head. "No, I left your name out of it. It's not a big deal."

"You're involved in a missing persons investigation. What if Hopper looks into it and somehow it leads back to us? I could lose my reputation, my spot on the cheerleading squad, my chance of getting into Columbia!"

"I'll protect you, I promise!" Lucas grabbed her hand, but she pulled away and walked down the hall.

...

Further down the hall, Max stood at her locker as El and Dustin ran up to her.

"How was your date with Troy?!" El asked excitedly.

Max rolled her eyes. "Troy's gorgeous, but his conversation skills are subpar."

One of the other girls on the cheerleading squad walked up behind Max. "Hey Max, how was the pumpkin smash you had last night?"

Max looked at her confused. "Excuse me?"

"The pumpkin smash Troy gave you last night? Was it good?" The girl laughed and walked away.

"We ate a piece of pumpkin pie if that's what you mean," Max said with a roll of her eyes.

Both El and Dustin's phones went off at that second and as Dustin looked down at his phone his face fell.

"Oh no..."

Max noticed his expressed and grabbed his phone. She looked down and saw the photo she and Troy took last night was distorted with inappropriate edits and a caption under it that said: "Gave the new Cali ginger a pumpkin smash last night she could barely handle!"

She turned to Dustin and El. "What the hell is a 'pumpkin smash?'"

Dustin hesitated. "It's what you think it is. It's a stupid thing that Hawkins boys do."

"No, Dustin. This is called 'slut-shaming.' And Mad Max is not a slut nor am I going to be shamed by some bonehead Hawkins jerk. Does he actually think he'll get away with this? Does he really not know who I am? I will slash the tires on his bright red Mustang," Max raged.

El spoke up. "We can go to the principal and tell him!"

"About the star quarterback and the coach's son?"

"Or I can expose him in the newspaper! That's an option now!"

"No, no, no. Spoken like a nice girl who always plays by the rules." Max shoved Dustin's phone back into his hand and started storming down the hallway. "I don't follow rules. I'm the one who makes them or breaks them when I need to. Want to help me get revenge on Troy, Eleven? Great. But get ready to go full dark no stars on his ass."

El ran to keep up with her with a confused expression on her face.

Max stormed into the boys' locker room shoving past large jocks who looked at her with a confused expression. El followed close behind trying not to look at the half-naked men in her way.

Max bumped into Lucas who looked at the two of them, stunned. "Max? El? What are you guys doing in here?"

Max tried to push past him. "Move, Lucas."

He tried to stand in her way. "Not until you tell me-"

"I mean it, Sinclair! Hit the showers and get out of my way!" She pushed past him stronger this time.

Max finally found Troy laughing with some of his friends. She cleared her throat to get his attention.

"Well, well, well, hello ladies," Troy said smirking at the two of them.

Max held up her phone with the picture in his face. "I'm gonna ask you once, nicely. Take this down."

"Woah, hold up. It's a great honor, Max. Why are you so upset? And we all know you're down for anything after you had that closet moment with Sinclair."

El spoke up, "That's so irrelevant, Troy! You can't just treat girls like that, you...jerk!"

Troy turned to her. "Well, I know you're not as experienced, El, but if you want a chance that can definitely be arranged." He looked her up and down.

Max scoffed. "Let's keep this simple so you can get on with your pathetic life. Take. This. The. Hell. Down." She walked towards him.

Troy smirked. "You know, that high tone, bitchy attitude might've worked on the dudes you dated in LA, but you're in Hawkins now, where the tigers are."

One of Troy's friends came up from behind and growled, startling Max.

"So go ahead, fight back. You're only gonna embarrass yourself."

Max didn't respond as he walked away.

...

Mike walked over to the Police Station after school. He looked around and saw them all sitting around eating donuts and laughing at something someone had said. They all stopped and turned when they saw him come in.

"At ease guys, I'm here to talk to Office Callahan. It's for the _Blue & White_," Mike said.

Callahan stood up and walked over to him. "What can I do for ya, kid?"

"Jonathan Byers and Lucas Sinclair both said they saw something they couldn't identify the night Will went missing-"

Callahan interrupted him. "Yeah, kid, Hopper already asked me about this. I already told him. I didn't hear anything weird, alright?"

Mike walked closer to him. "Did you see anything weird?"

Callahan looked at him surprised. From a distance, Mike saw one of the other officers, Powell, looking at him.

Callahan rolled his eyes. "Look kid, I already answered your question. I don't really have much else for you. Look I gotta get back to work."

With that, he turned away and went back to work.

...

Max hadn't started any of her homework yet. She sat at her desk looking at the picture Troy posted and was reading the comments. Most of them were negative towards her and she started to feel tears in her eyes. Her mom knocked on her door and came in. Max put her phone down and turned towards her.

"Hey, sweetie. I forgot to ask how your date went last night. He seemed very good looking," Susan said smiling at her daughter.

"Handsome on the outside, rotten on the inside," Max mumbled.

Susan frowned. "What does that mean?"

"Nothing, mom. He's just not my type, that's all." Her phone vibrated and she saw that it was El calling her.

"Hello? El?" She answered.

20 minutes later Max was back at Hawkins High hurrying through the halls to the classroom El said she was in. When she walked in she saw at least a dozen girls sitting around talking.

El looked at her as she walked in. "The story's bigger than we thought. I asked a few girls in my class if the same thing happened to them that happened to you. A few of them said they'd go on record for the paper."

A red haired girl sitting in front of El spoke up. "I will for sure."

El nodded. "It's the same 5 guys on the football team. Troy and his minions. Barb was going to tell us her story." El gestured to the red haired girl.

"One time last year, Troy came up to me in the library. It wasn't even 15 minutes. I literally helped him edit his essay, nothing happened. But the next day, he told everyone I let him do stuff to me. Later that day they wrote, "sloppy seconds" on my locker-"

"Yes, we've all heard your sob story, Barb," Jennifer interrupted, standing at the door.

El shook her head and turned to Barb again. "I'm so sorry that happened to you, Barb. That's awful."

"Not as awful as losing your boyfriend, but we all have struggles. For now though, cheerleading practice starts in 10 minutes, whores-"

Barb interrupted her, "They're ruining our lives and they don't even care. They have a scorebook-"

Max spoke up, "What are you talking about?"

"Each 'victory' gives them a certain amount of points. They have a secret playbook they keep track of."

El stood up angry, "We need to tell Principal Clarke about this."

Barb shook her head. "I've already tried. He said he couldn't find anything."

"Well, we need proof then-"

Jennifer rolled her eyes. "Proof of what, Nancy Drew? That boys will continue to be boys? That playbook has to be fake."

"Why would you think that?" Max turned to her.

"Because, my good friend Steve Harrington, is co-captain of the football team with Troy. He never told me about that and he wouldn't have allowed it."

"Well, I don't know this 'Steve Harrington,' but I'm telling the truth about it, and so is Barb, and everyone else in this room. Even if I don't find proof, I'm going to give these preppy, idiotic dickheads what they deserve. You can get caught in the backlash if you want, but go ahead and call me or any of these amazing, young women 'whore' one more time."

Max gave Jennifer an intimidating glare. Jennifer nodded and agreed to help.

...

At Benny's later that evening, Powell sat in a booth by himself eating a sundae, while reading the paper. He didn't notice Mike sit across from him until he grabbed the cherry from on top of the sundae and eat it.

"Woah, what's going on, kid?" Powell asked startled.

"I saw how you looked at me earlier when I was talking to Callahan. You're hiding something, I know it." Mike grabbed the sundae and spoon and started eating it.

Powell looked around before speaking softly. "Office Callahan is lying. We did see something weird that night. It was there. The thing that everyone's talking about. It was big and didn't have a face. It let out this loud cry and we just ran the other way. Callahan was so scared and thought he scared it so he told us all not to tell anyone. He said we probably just 'imagined it.'"

Mike looked at him confused, but gave him back the empty sundae dish and left the diner.

...

The next day, El sat in the newspaper office working on an article when Barb walked in with someone else.

"Hey, El, you know Greg McCorkle right?" Barb gestured to the blonde guy standing next to her.

He smiled at her. "Hey."

She smiled back. "Yeah of course! Hey, Greg."

"He used to be on the football team last year with Troy," Barb explained.

Greg interrupted her, "I quit though. After Troy showed me his 'playbook' as he called it. I think I know where it is too."

El looked at him and smiled. "Show me where it is."

They had to wait until later at night until no one was around before El, Max, and Barb went searching around.

"Once again, just like every other small town in America, football players are acting like assholes. The coach's son, Mr. Golden Boy, is the ring leader," Max raged.

"Well look at you 3 spies!"

The 3 of them turned around to see Jennifer at the end of the hallway.

"Sneaking around after school hours, El? What would your whacked-out mother say about that, huh?" Jennifer walked towards them.

El rolled her eyes. "What are you doing here, Jennifer?"

"I heard you guys were looking for the playbook and thought I'd help out."

"Help? Or destroy our plans?" El challenged.

"Chill, El."

Barb walked towards a locker. "Hey guys, I think this is it." She pulled out a book and started looking through it. Greg was right, he was too dumb to even hide it."

She flipped to the last page where they saw Max's name and next to it 'New Girl Bonus! +5'

Max frowned. "'New girl?!' That's what they've degraded me down to?"

Barb rolled her eyes. "I'm 'Big Girl.' What a joke."

El gasped. "Oh my god. Kali's in this book. Next to Steve Harrington's name?" She turned away.

"I'm so sorry, El," Max said.

Jennifer shook her head. "No, I know Steve. He wouldn't do something like-"

El turned around. "It's right in there, Jennifer! The facts are in front of you. Your best friend hurt my sister. This is what guys like Troy and Steve think of us! Like we're objects for them to use and then get rid of and rate us on our looks and shame us. The worst part is they don't even care."

Jennifer looked down guilty.

Max grabbed her phone. "I'm taking a picture. This is evidence. We can show Principal Clarke and you can publish it in the paper, El."

El shook her head. "No, all these girls deserve justice for what they did to them. Right?" She looked at all of them. "You guys wanna get revenge? Go 'full dark, no stars?' Well, I'm in and I have the perfect plan."

...

 **CLIFFHANGER!**

 **This chapter was interesting to write because I had to change somethings from the original show to have it make sense, but I hope you like how it played out.**

 **For all you Mileven shippers out there like me, they had their first moment together in this chapter :) Don't worry there will be sooooooo many more coming up.**

 **Please review! I'd love to hear what you guys think and if there's things you'd like me to work on or add in.**

 **As always, thank you for reading!**

 **Xoxo CW**


	6. Body Double

**Hi everyone! I'm so sorry about the long wait for this chapter. This week has been crazy and I just finally had time to write the next chapter.**

 **Hope you like it!**

...

The next night, El sat at her vanity applying red lipstick. She had her hair tied up in a high ponytail and was wearing a pink tank top with a black pencil skirt.

She looked at herself in the mirror and smiled as she set the lipstick down.

"Crimson seduction isn't your color, honey." Terry stood at the door and frowned at her daughter.

El didn't look up, but instead continued to look in the mirror. "It's Kali's. I'm using it tonight."

Terry shook her head. "Kali made a lot of mistakes in her young life, I don't want you to follow that path."

"Well, I like it. It makes me feel...powerful." El smiled to herself in the mirror.

Terry walked over and stood behind her. "Are you coming to the town meeting tonight?"

"No, I'm going over to Max's house. We have a test in history tomorrow that we need to study for."

Terry grabbed a makeup wipe off of her dresser and ran it over El's mouth removing the red lipstick. "I don't want you interacting with someone like that."

El rolled her eyes. "You mean a 'bad girl?' Get over it, mom. She's my friend."

Terry leaned over and grabbed another lipstick. "Here, use this one. 'The Perfect Pink,' it's more you."

El hesitantly grabbed the lipstick and looked down.

...

Half an hour later, after El reapplied the red lipstick, she strolled into Benny's where she saw Troy sitting alone in a booth eating a burger. She slowly walked over to where he was sitting as he looked up at her.

She smiled sweetly. "Hi, Troy. Can I sit here?" She gestured to the empty seat across from him.

Troy rolled his eyes. "Not if you're gonna lecture me about Max."

El sat down. "Only in regards to the fact that I think...I think I wanna be more like her." She gave him a small smile.

He looked up at her with a smirk. "El Hopper wants to be a bad girl?"

"Maybe."

"Oh, like how your sister, Kali was?" At this El gave him a confused look. "Oh yeah, Steve told us all about her. Prissy prude by day, freak in the sheets by night? Bad girls are more fun, am I right?" He smirked at her.

She paused and started to feel herself losing control over her powers before she caught herself. "Yeah, of course! I was thinking...what if you show me?"

"Of course! I can do that for you. When are you thinking?"

"Tomorrow night?"

"Sure. You wanna go to my place or your-"

"Barb's!" Troy looked at her confused. "Her parents are out of town, she said it's totally fine and she'll leave us a key. Don't worry, we're friends...and she has a hot tub." El looked at him and smirked.

Troy's eyes widened. "I'll be there and don't worry, I'll be gentle," he said with a smirk.

El cringed. "Great." She got up and walked out of the diner.

...

The next night, Troy pulled up in front of Barb's house. He walked over to the pool house and knocked on the door. The door opened and Max stood in the doorway wearing a white robe over black bathing suit.

He looked at her confused. "You're not El...?"

"El and I talked earlier. We decided we need to stop fighting over boys and learn to share."

She turned around and walked towards the hot tub. She flipped her long red hair over her shoulder. "It's nice, isn't it? It gets very, very steamy in here." She dropped her robe and stepped into the hot tub. "Come on in, Troy."

Troy was watching her every move speechless. "Uh should we wait til El gets here?"

Before Max could respond, the door opened and El walked in wearing black lingerie with her bright red lipstick and a black wig. Troy and Max stared at her unable to respond.

"El couldn't make it tonight. So I'm here instead." El smirked at Troy.

...

Meanwhile at the town meeting, Mr. Sinclair was walking around talking to people when he came across someone he hadn't seen in ages.

"Susan?"

Susan Hargrove turned around to see her old friend.

"Hey! Wow it's been a while." They hugged and stood in awkward silence.

"Yeah, its been, what? 20 years?"

She nodded, but didn't respond.

Jennifer Hayes walked by and Mr. Sinclair recognized her.

"Hey, you're Jennifer Hayes, right? Will's girlfriend?"

She looked up at him, not recognizing who he was.

"I'm Lucas Sinclair's father. I'm so sorry about everything that you're going through."

Her eyes widened. "Oh, of course. Nice to meet you."

"I know you've always been nice to Lucas and I'm glad to hear you two have become friends. It's been hard on him, he and Will were always good friends."

Jennifer didn't say anything, but just nodded.

Terry Ives spotted Joyce Byers from afar and walked over to talk.

"Well, well, if it isn't the crazy mother herself. Found your kid yet?"

Joyce glared at her. "How dare you come over and talk to me like that!? You know full well what goes on down at Hawkins Lab. With Kali and El? You seriously think they had nothing to do with this?! After you sent Kali away."

Terry glared back, but didn't respond and walked away.

...

Mike snuck his way into the town meeting. He could see all the adults with their drinks too busy talking to one another to notice his presence.

He looked around before he spotted his target leaving the bathroom.

"Office Callahan."

Callahan turned around and was surprised to see Mike there.

"Oh. Hey, kid. What can I-"

"I have information from a very reliable source that you did see something the night Will went missing. Something big, and not human-like, but you told everyone you were with that they imagined it and then it let out some loud noise...So tell me, why did you lie to me?"

Callahan gave him an anxious look. "Listen, kid. I don't know what it was. I was so scared. Put yourself in my shoes. This thing comes out of nowhere and makes this loud noise and I don't even know what it wa-"

"Save the speech for Chief Hopper. Or you can give it to me. I suggest me. Blue & White Office tomorrow, noon."

Mike walked away leaving Callahan feeling defeated.

...

El was pouring Troy a drink and added a sedative in it. Max noticed and looked at her concerned.

"What did you just put in?"

El shrugged. "Muscle relaxant. When you mix it with alcohol it becomes a great truth serum."

"Maybe we should slow this down a little?"

El rolled her eyes. "It's fine, Max." She turned towards Troy. "Right, Troy? You don't want us to slow down, do you?"

Troy smirked. "Oh, I'm never slow, honey."

"Good. Good boy, Troy." She handed him his drink.

A little while later, the sedative started to set in and without him knowing, Max handcuffed Troy to the hot tub.

Eventually he saw them. "What the hell?"

El stood on the ground above him and looked at Max who was holding her phone pointed at Troy. "Start the video."

"Guys, it's getting real hot in here," Troy said.

"And getting hotter by the second, time for you to tell the truth for once. Tell everyone what happened with Max that night." El stood above him looking down at him.

"We had a good time-"

"The truth, Troy! Or watch me boil you alive." El used her powers to turn the temperature up in the hot tub.

"What?! We made out!" Troy yelled.

"And...?"

Troy looked at El. "And then I drove her home, alright?! Nothing else happened!"

Max rolled her eyes. "That's all you had to say, asshole!" She stopped the video and posted it on her social media accounts. "And now everyone knows." She smirked at him, thinking they were done.

El, however, wasn't done. She looked down at him and used her powers to sink him lower into the hot tub. "You enjoy making people feel bad about themselves, Troy? You like treating them like garbage?"

Troy had started to fight back, trying to tell her to stop, but El wasn't listening.

"'-Prissy prude by day, freak in the sheets by night?' Apologize, Troy."

Max looked at the scene in front of her concerned. "El, calm down, okay?"

El continued to push him into the water with her mind and started yelling. "Say you're sorry!"

"Okay, okay! I'm sorry for everything I did. I shouldn't have done it! Are you happy now?" Troy looked up at her scared.

"Good job, Troy. Now it's your turn for a 'pumpkin smash.'"

"What?!" Troy screamed.

She grabbed a pumpkin from the table and used her powers to cut open the top. She grabbed the stuff inside the pumpkin and started throwing it on top of him.

"Apologize for ruining Kali! Do it, Papa! Apologize for what you did to me! Say you're sorry for ruining me!" El screamed at him.

Troy screamed back. "Stop! I'm not Papa! I'm Troy! Stop!"

"EL! STOP!" Max screamed. "That's enough. We did it, you did it! Just stop."

El seemed to come to herself as she stared at the ground with a blank expression.

Troy continued screaming, "You're crazy. Oh my god, you're the craziest person alive!"

"El..." Max said looking at her friend concerned.

El looked up. "I'm fine. Everything's okay. We're done here."

...

The next day at school, El stood in the Blue & White's office with the freshly printed papers; the front page outing the playbook scandal.

Max knocked on the door. "Can I come in?"

El smiled and nodded.

Max smiled upon seeing the newspapers. "Quite an expose. When did you have time to write this?"

El sighed. "Las night, I couldn't sleep so I stayed up all night writing it. After..."

Max nodded. "I couldn't sleep either." She paused. "El, you were such a good friend last night. No other friend would've done that for me, but...can we talk about it?"

El looked confused. "About what?"

"The wig? The outfit? Everything? You used your powers, El. How far were you willing to take it?"

El shook her head. "He deserved it. He was so out of it, he didn't see me using my powers."

"You called him 'Papa' and you thought you were Kali!" Max looked at her exasperated.

El shook her head again. "Um...no, that didn't happen. I didn't do that." She walked away.

Max followed her. "Yes you did, El. It was like you became someone else."

El shrugged. "I guess I remember telling him to apologize for Kali, but I didn't think he was Papa."

"Why did you do it then?"

"Because, Max!" El turned around. "I'm so tired of people taking advantage of girls like you, and me, and Kali who are vulnerable! It's not fair!" El turned and walked away, this time Max didn't follow, but decided to drop it.

...

 _Mike's POV_

 _Good. Evil. Light. Dark. Eleven. Max._

 _Like two completely opposite sides of the spectrum._

 _After the article was published, Principal Clarke had to make a stand. The coach, also Troy's father, to save his job and the school's reputation, was forced to cut his own son and star player from the team. An action, although no one knew at the time, would have severe consequences in the future. All the girls, including El, Max, Barb and all the other girls victimized by Troy and his gang, watched as he walked down the hall surrendering his famous letterman jacket._

 _But one thing was certain, Eleven and Max, now El and Mad Max, had been forged, maybe forever. They walked through the fire and survived, together._

 _El took the playbook with her and when she got home, she burned it and all the secrets that were inside._

...

Later that day, Office Callahan went to the Blue & White's Office to meet with Mike and El.

"Look kid, if you publish the story that I lied about what I saw that day, I'll lose my job. So...what if I have a better story for you?"

Mike and El looked at each other before nodded to him to continue.

"If I tell you this story, you have to keep my story between the 3 of us, alright?"

El nodded. "You have our word."

"I saw Jennifer Hayes in the woods that night with someone, a guy. I don't know who it was, but it wasn't Will."

El looked at him confused, but Mike's face was expressionless. He would've done what he could to protect his best friend, but now that Callahan had spilled the secret, there was nothing that could be done to stop it from spiraling out.

...

 **Thanks for reading!**

 **This chapter was hard to right. I wanted to add a little bit of parent drama in, but I found it hard to write somehow.**

 **Please review :)**

 **Xoxo**

 **-CW**


	7. Smooth Criminals

**Hi everyone!**

 **Thank you all for your comments, I love reading them. They keep me motivated to continue writing. I'm glad I'm not the only one who loves Stranger Things and Riverdale :)**

 **Enjoy!**

...

 _Mike's POV_

 _It's now been 2 months since Will Byers went missing. This mystery has shook the town of Hawkins more than anyone could've anticipated._

 _But Will wasn't the only thing Hawkins' had lost; the movie theater, The Hawk, where I work, my home away from home, one of the most favored spots in town, is being shut down. Just when everyone needed a place to escape to the most._

 _Chief Hopper spent his days knocking on doors trying to figure out what happened to Will Byers. Friends began turning on each other and Hawkins was starting to become a place of accusation and resentment._

 _And meanwhile, the girl next door, Eleven Hopper, with her dark brown curls, was struggling with the realization that her good friend Lucas Sinclair was caught up in a forbidden romance with none other than Will Byers' girlfriend._

...

El paced back in forth in her room thinking about what Callahan had said the day before. She didn't want to understand why Jennifer and Lucas were in the woods, but deep down she knew. As much as it pained her to admit, she knew that they were together and why they had both lied.

Lucas had also been one of Will's closest friends and despite what he must have felt for Jennifer, he still felt the guilt for betraying one of his oldest friends.

She had to find out for herself, she knew Lucas wouldn't lie to her.

...

"The Hawk closing is just another nail in the coffin that Hawkins is becoming. No, forget Hawkins, the coffin of America!" Mike vented as he, El, Max, and Dustin sat in a booth in Benny's later that night. El, though she was sitting next to him, wasn't paying attention to what he was saying. Too deep in thought of what she would say to Lucas the next time she saw him.

Mike continued to vent despite the lack of interest. "As the god of cinematography, Quentin Tarantino would say-"

Dustin cut him off, "Mike, quit it with the Tarantino references!"

"Look, I'm pissed, okay?! Not just about losing my job, the Hawk should mean something to all of us, right? We should try to save it!"

Max rolled her eyes. "In a world with Netflix and Hulu, are people still going to drive all the way to see a movie? Who even goes there anymore anyways?"

"Drug dealers," Dustin said.

Mike cut him off, "And cinema files, writers, film critics, right El?" Mike turned to El, who looked up at the sound of her name, the nickname she had almost forgotten was given to her by Mike 4 years ago.

"Yeah, right," she said lamely.

"Anyway, it's only closing because the town decided not to invest in it, until an anonymous buyer made an offer the town couldn't turn down-"

"Wait, an anonymous buyer? What are they trying to hide? Who cares?" Max interrupted.

Mike glared at her. "I do! Also, you guys should come to closing night on Saturday. I'm thinking of playing _Pulp Fiction_ , or is that too obvious of me?"

"I vote for anything not having to do with _Star Wars_ ," Max said earning an eye roll from Mike.

"Ooh! What about _Star Trek_?" Dustin smiled. He looked at El, who was looking at her food. "What do you think, El?"

El looked up at them and blinked.

"Are you okay, El?" Max asked.

"Oh, yeah, I'm just thinking...How about _The Godfather_?" She suggested looking to Mike.

Mike looked at her and smiled, appreciating her taste in good movies.

Susan came over and gave them their milkshakes they ordered and they all thanked her.

Jennifer Hayes, who was sitting in a booth by herself, watched with a glare. When Susan came to take the money, she spoke up.

"Make sure all this money goes into the register. You are married to Neil Hargrove after all and we know how much money he stole."

Max, who had heard the exchange, stood up and started walking over.

Susan put a hand up to stop her. She took the money and walked away, leaving Jennifer satisfied.

Lucas and his father walked into the diner and sat down in the booth with Jennifer. Dustin noticed them first.

"That's a weird combination of humans."

El and Mike who were facing away from them turned around and she gaped at them.

"I'll be right back," she said and stood up.

Mike tried to grab her arm and stop her, but she was too fast. "El, stop, don't."

"What just happened?" Dustin asked.

She ignored him and walked over to the booth. She greeted Jennifer and Mr. Sinclair and then turned to Lucas.

"Can I talk to you outside, Lucas?"

Lucas avoided eye contact. "Uh...Can I call you later?"

"No, it has to be now. Just a school question." She turned and walked outside with Lucas behind her. Mike watched them with a concerned expression.

"Lucas, you know you're my best friend, so is there anything you want to talk about?" El questioned him.

Lucas shook his head. "No, I don't think so."

El sighed. "Jennifer was in the woods with some guy the night Will disappeared." Lucas looked down. "Were you the guy she was with?"

Lucas looked up at her. "Mike told you, didn't he?"

El blinked at him confused. "Wait, Mike knows about this?"

Meanwhile inside, Dustin, Max, and Mike were looking out of the window watching the interaction.

Max spoke up, "What's going on out there? Do we know? Am I involved?"

Mike slumped in his seat. "I have a feeling..." He rolled his eyes. "Also no, and please don't get involved."

Max stood up. "Too late, I need to check on them. I'll be back." She walked out of the door to where Lucas and El were standing talking.

"It's not what you think," Lucas explained.

"Oh, so it's completely platonic then?" El challenged.

Lucas sighed. "Well, I guess it's a little bit of what you think-"

"Lucas, are you and Jennifer...together? Romantically?"

"Oh my god. You and Jennifer Hayes, Will's girlfriend, are a thing?!" Max said. Lucas and El turned to see her walking towards them.

"We are...together, look this seems bad but-" Lucas tried to explain.

"Bad!? That sounds scandalous," Max said.

"It sounds like cheating to me! She was Will's girlfriend!" El exclaimed.

"El, stop-"

"No, Lucas I won't stop!"

Lucas turned to Max. "Max, back me up here."

Max shook her head. "No, I'm with El on this one. She was cheating on Will, one of your best friends, and then you lied about it! What is she to you anyways? Your girlfriend...? Booty call?"

Lucas rolled his eyes. "I don't know, okay? I don't know what we are."

El spoke up again. "You said you were alone in the woods. You lied to my dad, to all of us! Why would you protect her?!"

"She believed in me when no one else did!" Lucas yelled.

El looked down at her feet.

Max rolled her eyes. "Forget it, Lucas."

He ignored her. "El, talk to me."

El didn't say anything as her mom's car pulled into the parking lot.

"Let's go, El. Now," Terry said.

El shook her head at Lucas and walked over to the car and left.

Lucas turned back to Max, who was shaking her head.

"Oh, Stalker. You're in deep shit now."

Jennifer walked out of the diner not making eye contact with Lucas. She got into a car, where some of her friends were sitting. As she turned to put on her seatbelt, she saw something on the side of the building.

Susan Hargrove was arguing a man, who was wearing a leather jacket, with the symbol of the local gang, "The Demodogs."

She smirked and took out her phone to take a picture. "Well, well. Looks like Mrs. Hargrove is hiding something after all. Why else would she interact with a lowlife member of the Demodogs?"

Back at her house, El furiously wrote all of what just happened in her notebook, unable to control her emotions.

...

The next day at school, Lucas frantically searched for Mike before finding him handing out flyers to save the movie theater.

"Dude, how hard would it have been to give me a heads up about El?!"

Mike sighed. "Look, dude, you know me. I've always been a conscientious objector. Not saying anything to you or El was the best decision I could make to protect you."

"She's not gonna write about it in the Blue & White, is she?" Lucas asked nervously.

Mike rolled his eyes. "Seriously? El would never do something that would actually hurt you, even if there was just a chance."

Lucas relaxed and nodded.

"Probably," Mike said.

"Oh my god!"

"Dude, calm down, I'm joking. She might have a point though. What do you think is going to happen long term? With Jennifer?" Mike reasoned.

"I want to be with her, Mike. I just don't know how, but I'm going to hold on for as long as I can."

"I understand that," Mike said as he hung up a flyer about the theater. "Trying to hold onto something for as long as possible that you care about? It's tough."

"Just please let me know if you think El is going to do something crazy," Lucas said.

...

"Thanks for meeting with me, Jennifer. The Blue & White is doing a series of articles on all of the cheerleaders and since you're the captain, naturally, you're first!" El said as she sat with Jennifer in the Blue & White Office.

"Of course, El! Anything to get my name and picture to get in the newspaper," Jennifer said, excitedly.

"Let's get started, you've been a cheerleader for 3 years now, that's impressive! And it says you've also helped out with the football team?"

"Yeah, my good friend Steve Harrington and I worked on a program to get the football team and cheerleaders to work together last year," Jennifer explained.

"Lucas Sinclair's football team?" El asked with a polite smile.

Jennifer's smile faltered. "Well, I suppose since he's on the team, yes."

"He's cute, right?" El smiled.

Jennifer frowned. "I'm still grieving Will, honey. Lucas is a great friend, but nothing more. I don't see how this has to do with your article. I'm leaving." She stood up and walked out.

...

Dustin and Max sat in the student lounge together during their free period.

"I don't know what to do, Max! I wanna ask Stacey to go with me to closing night, but she doesn't want to be seen in public together!" Dustin fell onto one of the couches exasperated.

Max felt bad for him. "Why don't you and I go? As friends, obviously, but maybe it'll make Stacey jealous. I need someone to go with anyways since Lucas and I aren't talking right now and I don't think El's going."

Jennifer walked into the lounge and walked straight over to Max.

"I'm so sorry Max."

Max looked at her confused. "For...?"

"It's just such a tragedy to think that your own mother would stoop so low to provide for you," she said with mock sorrow.

"My mom's a waitress, Jennifer. Not Fantine. What are you doing here anyways?"

"Only to remind you of your place in the school's social caste system. Hanging around with losers like Dustin Henderson and Mike Wheeler..."

Dustin looked up offended.

Max scoffed. "Threatened, Jen? You might think you rule the school with your attitude, but what I wanna know is how this has anything to do with my mom being a waitress?"

"Oh nothing...I just saw her mingling with a Demodog last night outside of Benny's. I coudn't hear what they said, but it sounded pretty heated. See?" She held up her phone so she could see the picture before stalking off.

Max turned to Dustin. "What the hell is a 'Demodog?'"

"It's this biker gang on the southside of town. They're pretty dangerous, you know, drug dealers, petty thieves, rebel rousers..." Dustin explained.

"Well, why was my mom talking to one?" Max asked confused.

Dustin just shrugged.

After school Max went home to see her mother sitting on the couch watching TV.

"Hey sweetie, how was school?" Susan smiled at her daughter.

Max paused. "Jennifer Hayes showed me a picture today of you talking to a Demodog outside of Benny's. They're thugs, what are you doing with them?"

Susan smiled. "First, I don't want you to worry, because you don't have anything to worry about. Second, I did grow up here. The Demodogs might be a gang now, but I did go to school with some of them. I was just saying hi to an old friend from high school, that was it."

Max stared at her. "But she said you were arguing..."

"Arguing? No of course not. He made a rude comment and I told him off, that's it."

"Mom, if you're in trouble-" Max started.

"I'm not, sweetie. I promise."

Max nodded, but didn't quite believe her as she changed the subject.

...

Mike walked over to the mayor's office, trying once more to convince somehow that the theater was worth keeping. Thankfully, he knew the mayor, it was Dustin's mother, Claudia, so he thought it would be easier to convince her.

"I'm sorry, Mike, but the Hawk has just become a waste of land and a hang out spot for the Demodogs and drug dealers and criminals. The deal is done, Sinclair Construction is scheduled to tear down the spot next week."

Mike tried one last time. "Mrs. Henderson, when I was a kid, my family and I went to the Hawk every Saturday, partly because that was the day kids under 5 could get in for free so my sister Holly didn't need a ticket. We couldn't afford the expensive candy and popcorn there so we always snuck some in, my sister Nancy and I. It's like a home to me and my family."

Claudia sighed. "That's a really sweet story, Michael, but the future of Hawkins is at stake."

Mike nodded in defeat and left.

...

El and Max asked Lucas to meet them at Benny's on Friday for dinner after doing extensive research on Jennifer.

"I found out from a few reliable sources that she's been with almost half the guys at school, nearly everyone on the football team! Some of them even before you and when she was still with Will."

Lucas stared at her unsure. "Where did you get all this information?"

Max spoke up, "We asked around. And before you ask, yes these are reliable sources...We made sure they'd tell the truth."

Lucas was about to ask how they did that when El spoke up again. "She's not trustworthy, Lucas. There's something wrong with what she's doing. If she wanted to be with all these guys, what if she did something to Will to get him out of the picture?"

"So did you question all these people before or after you interviewed her for a fake article?" Lucas snapped at El, who looked down and didn't respond. "Why are you doing all of this, El? I'm not in danger."

"You don't know that-" she started.

"Yes, I do. I'm with her. I know our relationship. You don't. So let this go, if you're really my friend, let it go." Before she could respond, Lucas stood up and walked out of the diner.

...

Later that night, Lucas went over to Jennifer's house to watch a movie together. Her parents weren't home so they wouldn't get caught.

"I know it's not the Hawk, but since we couldn't really go there..."

Jennifer smiled at him. "It's perfect." She leaned in to kiss him and he met her halfway.

Unbeknownst to them, Max and El had followed Lucas to Jennifer's house. They snuck over to her silver BMW, where it was parked in the driveway.

"So much for letting this go..." Max muttered.

El ignored her and pulled out a bobby pin trying to unlock the door.

"Are we really breaking into her car right now? You know this is a felony right?" Max watched El work the lock. "Where did you learn to do this?"

"Jim taught me how to fix cars. It was something we did together the first year I was stuck in the cabin. His cruiser was crappy and always needed fixing." They heard the car unlock and El smiled.

They went into the car and shut the doors quietly so as to not let Lucas and Jennifer know they were outside.

Max looked at El. "Look, El, you know I love you, but I do need to ask one thing before risking going to jail...Are you doing this before you still have feelings for Lucas?"

El rolled her eyes, "No, Max. I'm doing this because Jennifer has Lucas under some kind of spell and we need him to know that she's bad news. Look for something!"

They searched the car, but didn't find anything. Max opened the glove compartment and searched through it, after rifling through a bunch of papers, she saw something at the bottom. She grabbed it and pulled it out.

"El...?" Max held up a gun.

Half an hour later, Lucas came out of the house to see Max and El standing in the street.

"Oh my god. I swear, you guys better not be still doing this crazy witch hunt..."

El rolled her eyes, "It's not a crazy witch hunt!" She paused and looked at Max who nodded. "We were just in Jennifer's car-"

"What!?" Lucas yelled.

Max spoke up, "Thank god we were because we found a gun."

"Oh my god, are you serious?"

"Lucas, what if she had something to do with Will's disappearance. We know she was in the woods that night, she cheated on him multiple times, she made you lie, and now she has a gun!" El explained.

"So does your dad and you didn't think he had anything to do with it!" Lucas argued.

"Wake up, Lucas!" Max snapped. "She clearly didn't want to be with Will. Look at the facts. There's something really weird about her."

Lucas shook his head before running off towards his house.

...

Mike knocked on the Sinclair's door the next morning. He wasn't there to see Lucas though, he wanted to talk to Mr. Sinclair.

Thankfully, he was the one who answered the door. "Hey, Mike! How have you been? It's been a while."

Mike didn't answer. "Mrs. Henderson says that you're the one tearing down the Hawk next week."

Mr. Sinclair sighed. "Yeah, I am. Look, Mike, I'm sorry I know how much that place meant to you. Hell, it meant a lot to me too."

"Please, Mr. Sinclair, give me a week to figure out who bought it and convince them not to take down the best place in town!"

"Mike, it's a big contract for me. I can't just say no. Whatever's gonna be built in its place will mean more to everyone-"

"What?! Because of some idealized, futuristic Hawkins?!" Mike snapped. "Look, you already put one Wheeler out of work, so you're just gonna put out another?"

Mr. Sinclair looked at him with a pained expression. "I had to, Mike. Your father was stealing money and equipment."

Mike shook his head. "Right. You had to do what's best for the company. Like you're doing now?"

Mike turned and walked away before he could respond.

...

 **Thanks for reading!**

 **This was a fun chapter to right because a lot was happening. There's some foreshadowing in here. If you've seen Riverdale you can probably figure it out, but don't spoil it in the comments :)**

 **I wasn't sure what to call the gang at first, btw. I didn't want to just keep it the Southside Serpents lol so I thought the Demodogs sounded "badass" as Dustin would say!**

 **Also, why is Mike so invested in the movie theater, huh...?**

 **I'll try to update as soon as I can!**

 **Please review!**

 **Xoxo**

 **-CW**


	8. The Last Picture Show

**Hello everyone!**

 **Thanks for all the reviews :) I love reading all of them and I'm excited to keep continuing this story.**

 **PSA: I just got back to school so if I don't update as much, it's just because I've gotten busy.**

 **Happy reading!**

...

Mayor Henderson sat in her office sipping a cup of coffee waiting for someone. She checked her watch. It was 10:04, they were late.

After a couple minutes, she heard the door open.

"You're late, Susan."

Mrs. Hargrove smiled as she walked over with a large bag. "I had to make a stop on the way." She dropped the bag on the desk and opened it up.

Claudia looked inside and saw a large sum of money.

"For your re-election campaign," Susan explained.

Claudia stood up and smiled.

"And Hargrove Corporation gets the Hawk. One of Hawkins' oldest pieces of property."

Susan smiled back and handed her the bag of money.

Claudia paused. "No one can know about this deal, Susan."

Susan nodded. "I'll keep your secret as long as you hold up your end of the bargain.

They stared at each other for a second, before Susan left.

...

The next day, Lucas stood in Jennifer's living room, his arms crossed and a confused expression on his face.

Jennifer smiled at him from the couch. "Are you just going to stand there, Lucas? Come on over."

He didn't move or say anything, but just stared at her.

Jennifer stood up. "What's wrong, Lucas?"

"Why do you own a gun?" He asked.

Her smile fell and she just stared at him. "How do you know about that?"

"Just answer the question, Jennifer."

She sighed and looked at her feet. "Before I started dating Will, I dated someone else. No one you know, someone from another school. And things were great in the beginning, but then he started drinking and he hit me one time. He promised he'd stop, but it didn't. So I bought a gun to protect myself, until he moved away."

Lucas sighed and walked over to her and hugged her as she started crying into his chest.

...

Dustin walked into his dad's office where he was working.

"Dad?"

Mr. Henderson looked up. "What is it, son?"

"Can I borrow your car to go to the Hawk tonight?" Dustin asked.

Mr. Henderson smiled. "You have a date, son?"

Dustin rolled his eyes. "No, dad. I'm going with Max and no before you ask, we're not dating. She's too tomboyish for me."

His father shook his head. "Aren't there any girls at your school that you could date?"

"I've tried, dad...So can I have the car?"

Mr. Henderson looked at him before reaching into his pocket and throwing him the keys.

"Drive safe, alright? Be back by midnight."

Dustin was beaming. "I will! Thanks, dad!"

...

El and Lucas walked down the street together. He recounted to her everything that Jennifer told him.

"Wow..." El said when he finished.

Lucas nodded. "That's why she has a gun, for protection in case he comes back."

"It still doesn't make what she did to you or Will right."

"She didn't do anything to us, El. I need you to accept that. I'm all she has right now," Lucas said exasperated.

El shook her head. "You're in over your head, Lucas. You're in this relationship with this girl who's trying to cut you off from everyone else. Think about it. Not just for you, but Jennifer, too. Is this really what's best for her?"

"I will deal with it, El. But in my way, okay?"

El sighed, but dropped the subject.

...

At El's household, Terry went into El's room with a basket of clean laundry. She began absentmindedly putting the clothes away in the drawers. When she reached the bottom drawer, she dug through and found a gun.

She slowly picked it up and stared at it, horrified. Then she ran over to her closet where she found her diary and flipped through, looking for anything that could explain what she found.

A few hours later, El arrived back at her house to find her mother sitting at the dining room table.

"Mom?" She asked confused.

Terry stood up out of her seat and walked over to El. "Finally!"

"What's wrong?"

"'What's wrong?!' My daughter is hiding a gun in her drawer!" She pulled out the gun and showed El who's eyes widened recognizing it as Jennifer's.

"I can explain-" El started.

"Oh you're going to. Now let's go, get in the car." Terry stormed out of the house, with El following.

...

That night, Dustin and Max went to the Hawk, where Mike decided to show 'The Godfather,' thanks to El.

Unbeknownst to Max, her mother was sitting in the way back with Mr. Sinclair as they snuggled up to watch the movie.

They joked around reminiscing on old times when they were in high school when her phone went off alerting her she had messages.

Her smile fell as she read the messages. Mr. Sinclair noticed.

"Is everything okay?"

"Yeah of course, I'm just going to grab more popcorn. I'll be back."

She got up and rushed out of the theater.

Mr. Sinclair sighed and tried to focus back on the movie when Terry Ives grabbed his arm and pulled him out of his seat.

"Terry?! What are you doing?" He whisper yelled.

"You need to come with me!"

"What-"

"It's about the kids!" Terry yelled.

That shut Mr. Sinclair up and they ran out of the theater together.

...

Meanwhile, Dustin had managed to finish off all popcorn which earned an eye roll from Max. She turned to say something to him, but was interrupted by some yelling from the back of the theater.

They turned to see a half a dozen Southside Demodogs laughing and chatting with each other.

Dustin scowled. "Southside Trash, is what they are."

Max nodded. "They've been doing it since the opening credits."

Dustin turned and 'shushed' them loudly. That just caused them the laugh and throw popcorn his way. He stared a girl in the middle, who kinda looked like Stacey, but in the darkness he couldn't tell.

Max had enough of it, when she stood up and faced them.

"Hey, assholes! Why don't you take your drugs outside before I come over there and make you!" She yelled.

The Demodogs stared at her stunned as everyone else in the theater applauded her as she smiled and sat back down.

Dustin looked at her. "I can't believe you just threatened a gang!"

Max rolled her eyes at him. "Believe me, I've dealt with worse back in Cali. I just hate when people are loud during the movies." She looked over at Dustin who was holding the empty popcorn bag. "How about a refill?"

Dustin looked at her before she shoved the bag back to her. "Yeah, Max. Get us a refill?"

Max rolled her eyes, but got up anyways. As she stood at the counter waiting for her popcorn she saw her mother outside talking to someone. She thanked the cashier before she slipped out the front door towards where she saw her mother go.

A tall man with dark hair and glasses stood facing her, while her mother faced the other way.

She handed him a bag and he looked inside and frowned.

"Where's the rest of it?" He asked.

"The rest of it?! He told me that was the agreed amount!"

The man shook his head. "In that case, maybe we should have a word with your husband."

"Good luck with that. While he's in California, you're dealing with me," Susan said confidently.

The man just nodded at her and smirked.

"Is there a problem?" Susan asked.

The man didn't answer, but just said. "Enjoy the movie, Susan."

Max ran back into the theater before the man or her mother could see her.

...

Lucas had texted Jennifer asking her to meet him in an empty classroom.

He opened the door to see her already sitting there. She looked up at him and smiled.

"You didn't wanna go to the movie tonight?" She asked teasingly.

Lucas pulled out a rectangular box from his jacket pocket. "I got you something."

He walked towards her. "Is this to make me feel better?"

"No, this is a thank you gift. For everything you've done for me."

He handed her the box and she opened it to see a small necklace with a heart.

She looked up and him smiling. "Thank you, Lucas. It's beautiful."

"Jennifer, I don't want to end this but..." Lucas trailed off.

Jennifer nodded sadly. "You think we should...So the necklace is a goodbye gift..."

Lucas shrugged. "It's a see-you-around-school gift. A don't-forget-me gift."

She laughed. "I don't think I could forget you..."

The moved closer together and were about to kiss when the door burst open. Terry Ives stormed in with El, Mr. Sinclair, and Joyce Byers following.

"Well, well, well. Look what we have here! This sure looked cozy, doesn't it?" Terry said. "What did I tell you? There they are!"

Jennifer looked at them all scared. "What's going on?"

"Lucas, would you like to explain to all of us what you've been doing with this girl who claims to be grieving so much over Will? And don't leave out any information because El keeps a very detailed diary and I am more than willing to fill in any missing information."

Lucas looked over at El who mouthed, 'I'm sorry.' He noticed that her eyes were red and her make up was running.

There was a silence as the five people looked at each other.

...

Meanwhile outside of the Hawk, Dustin stood by a fence relishing in the fact that he was kissing Stacey right now.

After Max had gone to get the popcorn, he saw someone sit in the seat she was sitting in and realized it was Stacey, but it didn't look like her. She had on dark make-up and clothes with a leather jacket with the DemoDogs' logo on the back.

They both stood up and went behind the theater and made out.

After a few minutes, Dustin pulled away. "Okay, now I really need to go back now before Max starts looking for me."

Stacey pouted. "Oh Max, huh?"

Dustin made a face. "Ew god, no. It's not like that at all."

Stacey smiled and leaned in to kiss him again.

When she pulled away this time she pulled up her sleeve to reveal a tattoo of a weird faceless creature, which Dustin knew as the DemoDog logo.

"Is this a problem?" She asked him.

Dustin thought about it for a second. "I won't tell if you won't."

Stacey smiled again and kissed him once more.

...

"I never thought I'd get to this day," Terry said while walking around the classroom triumphantly. "I thought we'd finally be rid of cheaters in this town-" She started walking towards Jennifer who was crying.

Lucas stepped towards Jennifer. "She's not a cheater! Will's gone! She wanted to break up with him that night!"

Joyce shook her head from behind Terry.

"You don't have to defend me, Lucas," Jennifer said looking up at him.

"No, he doesn't," Mr. Sinclair spoke up after not speaking.

Terry turned towards Joyce and Mr. Sinclair. "Well! There we have it. They're not denying it, are they? I think we should take this to Jim next and let him know. She would have a motive now, wouldn't she?"

Lucas turned to his father. "Dad, you can't let that happen!"

Mr. Sinclair sighed. "It's complicated, Lucas."

"She didn't do anything wrong! I went after her! Everything that happened was because of me-"

Terry interrupted. "Well, that's no surprise!"

El stepped forward. "Why are you doing this, mom?! Accusing Jennifer of killing Will?"

Terry shook her head. "This isn't about Jennifer. This is about him!" She pointed towards Lucas. "I want you to see what kind of person your friend Lucas truly is!"

Mr. Sinclair glared at Terry. "So this is about your crazy hatred towards my 16 year old son?!"

Terry opened her mouth to respond, but El spoke up. "I'm never going to stop being friends with Lucas!"

Mr. Sinclair looked exasperated. "Alright, we're done here."

Terry turned towards him. "We are not done here!"

Lucas yelled. "STOP!"

Everyone stopped talking and looked to him.

"You're right, Mrs. Ives. I am a bad person and I do stupid things and I don't deserve to be El's friend, but don't hurt Jennifer because you wanna hurt me."

Terry smiled. "This isn't about hurting anyone, Lucas. It's about doing what's right and of course informing the whole town-"

El interrupted. "If you tell anyone about this, mom, I'll tell everybody about how I broke into Jennifer's car-"

"El-"

"That I robbed her and made up a story about them. It'll be like I finally snapped. Like Kali. It'll be like what everyone says about us is true! Crazy runs in that family. Like mother like daughter, right?" El finished. Terry just looked at her.

"You wouldn't dare-" Terry starts.

"I'll stop seeing, Lucas." Jennifer said.

Everyone turned towards her.

"I'll avoid him at all costs. I'll switch classes, I won't talk to him. Will that make you all happy?!" She had started crying and stood up.

El nodded. "It has to." She turned towards her mother. "And I would dare, mom."

"Why?!" Lucas shouted.

"Because it's what's right, son," Mr. Sinclair said. "And Terry will keep her word about staying quiet."

Terry nodded reluctantly. "I will."

Jennifer rushed towards the door.

"Jennifer, wait!" Lucas called out.

She turned towards him one last time before running out.

...

Max got home before her mother did. She sat in the living room thinking about what she overheard.

When her mother finally came home, she was surprised to see Max already there.

"Hi, sweetie."

"What the hell was that, mom?!" Max asked as she stood up.

Her mother looked at her confused.

"I saw you, talking to that creepy gang man. Don't tell me you were just talking to an old friend."

Susan sighed. "I was just finishing some unfinished business for your step-father."

Max scoffed. "I need more than that, mom. Details!"

"Fine. Neil hired the Southside DemoDogs to decrease the value of the Hawk's land so we could purchase it at a lower price. What you saw was just me paying them for doing their job."

Max just blinked at her. "So, Neil's the anonymous buyer?" Susan nodded. "And he's doing this from California?"

"He has a long reach. He dropped all his money into this deal," Susan explained.

"So..." Max started.

"He's a businessman. He saw an opportunity and took it." They sat down on the couch. "It was going to happen eventually. The old Hawkins is dying and we're just helping it along."

"But it's wrong..." Max shook her head.

"Wrong? I thought you liked living in LA by the beach?" Susan asked.

Max didn't respond.

"That was our life, Maxine. Provided by Neil, understand?"

Max didn't respond again, but just got up and walked to her room.

...

When Mr. Sinclair and Lucas pulled into their driveway, Lucas couldn't move. His father got out of the car and opened the door for him, but Lucas didn't move.

Mr. Sinclair sighed. "You're not all of those things you said you were. You're not stupid or a bad person. It wasn't your fault."

Lucas nodded and got out of the car and couldn't hold it in any longer. He cried and his father held him as he broke down.

Next door, Terry sat with El in her room. El was turned away from her and tears were falling down her face.

"El, honey. Kali kept so many secrets from us. I don't want you to keep secrets, too. I won't have any more secrets between us. Not anymore, I'm here to keep you safe, so you won't have to go back to the lab-"

El turned around and interrupted her. "What's my name, mom? Say it."

Terry looked down. "El."

"That's right. I'm El, not Kali! Lucas is not Steve or Brenner, so stop using them as an excuse to control my life!"

Her mother didn't respond so El turned around again and cried. Terry eventually left El alone.

She got up and looked out her window to see Lucas at his desk. She grabbed her phone and texted him, 'I'm sorry.'

She saw him grab his phone and type back. Her phone buzzed and she saw his message said, 'It's okay, it's not your fault.'

El smiled and looked up towards him, but his curtains were already closed.

She sat back down on her bed and started writing in her diary.

...

Mike watched from behind the projector as the end credits rolled and realization dawned on him that it was over.

The next morning, he got up and walked over to where all of his stuff sat in the corner of the projection room. He grabbed a bag and stuffed everything in it. He came across an old picture of him and his 2 sisters, Holly and Nancy. He smiled and put it in his bag. Once he was done he grabbed his stuffed and walked out.

Since the theater was now deserted, he grabbed a can of spray paint and wrote, 'Mike Wheeler Was Here,' on the side of the building. The Hawk had literally been his home for months now and he wanted to leave his mark.

Unbeknownst to him, the man with black hair and glasses stood on the sidewalk watching him, his leather jacket matching his hair.

When Mike turned around he just stared at the man.

"They might as well tear the place down, send it to the junkyard us with it," the man said.

"Yeah, save the pieces. In a hundred years they can rebuild it and wonder who they hell we were," Mike responded with a smile.

The man laughed. "So, where are you going to live now?" He asked.

Mike's smile fell. "I'll figure it out, dad. I always do."

Ted Wheeler watched as his son walked down the streets, a large backpack slung over his shoulders.

...

The next night Chief Hopper came home to find his door opened.

"Shit," he whispered.

He ran in the house and into his office. He found that everything on Will's disappearance was gone. Everything else in the house was untouched, but all of the papers and files about Will were gone.

...

 **Thanks for reading!**

 **Some cliffhangers for you all. For those of you who haven't seen Riverdale, did you see Mike's dad coming?! Mr. Wheeler will be slightly OOC in this story, but to make it flow better I had to make it that way.**

 **I'll try and update as soon as I can!**

 **Xoxo,**

 **-CW**


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